india wants america s cutting edge technology, the state of the art weapons. china is as much of a threat to india, as people here in india know, than it s a concern for the us. so india would like the us to be on its side as always a friend without really giving too much to the us. now mr modi can say to india, look, the biggest democracy on earth is giving us and our policies the thumbs up . he has harped on one thing, that india is the biggest democracy in the world, even though when he was talking about india s democracy, there were protesters outside the white house protesting against human rights alleged human rights violations in india and the treatment of the muslims and the christians that are being meted out in india. he kept emphasising the fact that india is the biggest
india us partnership is essential to maintain a free and open and even prosperous indo pacific region not dominated by china. this could be the reason why the biden administration has been willing to overlook the concerns over india s alleged dwindling human rights records. over the years, the successive us administrations have been trying to take india into the western orbit by breaking its strong ties with russia. and also, they have been trying to remove india s suspicion of the west. since the russian invasion of ukraine last year, in february, the biden administration has been trying really, really hard to convince india to condemn the russian aggression, but without much luck. in the long run, over
are distrusting institutions and systems and they re turning to leaders that give fairly simple, clear cut solutions to national problems, you know, is clearly still there. we saw in the election in turkey recently. and of course, one of the features of certain types of populism is that they reject everything about the nature of the state that they ve taken over modi in india, a good example. modi has and others have clearly grabbed hold of certain parts of the state in a way that we re seeing that s definitely a common theme. and by and large, it s control over the judiciary, it s control over the media. you re seeing that, for example, in some european countries, you know, in places like poland and hungary. hungary in particular. ..particularly,
the maybe past 20 odd years, the american endeavours appear to be bearing fruit. india is closer to the us today than it ever was, and in the last 20 years india s dependence on russian weapons imports have been reduced from 68% to 45%, 46% today. and the us has been the main beneficiary, because india s weapon imports from the us have been steadily on the rise. nevertheless, india comes out of this much stronger, doesn t it, even than it went into the visit? i think india s interests primarily lie in rising as a great power, a voice of the global south, as mr modi has said several times. it sees the united states as a very important partner in the quest.
..boris johnson in britain. chuckles. ..modi in india. all sing. ..erdogan in turkey, bolsonaro in brazil and various others around the globe. and then, suddenly, it wasn t, after all, and many of the populists gave way to other, more traditional leaders. so is populism dead? and what is it, anyway? i asked james landale, the bbc s diplomatic correspondent. we re talking anti establishment rhetoric, we re talking the undermining of institutions. we re talking about the idea of somehow there is the true reflection of the popular world that could only be reflected through that individual. so there are certain characteristics, but when you start looking at different people like, i don t know, president erdogan in turkey and then comparing him to borisjohnson in the uk context or donald trump, quite quickly you get into a place where you re beginning to start comparing apples and pears. but the basic idea, that there is a crisis of democracy, that many voters