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Sadanand Dhume

Washington, D.C.
As seen in: AEI - American Enterprise Institute, The Wall Street Journal, Medium, MSN, MSN Money Canada, The Economic Times, The Times of India, Newsweek, Newsweek Europe, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal (Japan), Brookings Institution and
Covers:  foreign policy, india, sri lanka, pakistan, bangladesh, south asia
CFR Senior Fellow, WSJ Columnist. Author of My Friend the Fanatic.
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The Talented Mr. Modi

The Talented Mr. Modi

www.foreignpolicy.com — On Thursday, Dec. 20, as results come in from this week's elections in Gujarat, Indians will learn the outcome of a state poll that has taken on the flavor of a national referendum. If, as widely expected, Chief Minister Narendra Modi cruises to a third successive victory, he will cement his position as India's leading opposition politician and its top contender to succeed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after national elections that will come no later than the middle of 2014. By contrast, an unlikely defeat, or even a narrow victory, will set back the controversial leader's national ambitions.
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India's Feckless Elite | Wilson Quarterly

India's Feckless Elite | Wilson Quarterly

www.wilsonquarterly.com — Just the other day, it seemed as if India could hardly put a foot wrong. Annual economic growth averaged above eight percent between 2003 and '08, and the country was one of the world's few major economies to escape more or less unscathed from the global financial crisis. In November 2010, President Barack Obama made the longest foreign visit of his presidency to India. There, in a rousing address to Parliament, Obama declared that "India has emerged," and pledged to back New Delhi's quest for a permanent seat on an expanded United Nations Security Council.
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Sadanand Dhume: Make the Moral Case for Indian Reform

Sadanand Dhume: Make the Moral Case for Indian Reform

Wall Street Journal — With the rupee falling and economic growth at a nine-year low, the last thing India needs is a credit rating downgrade to junk status. But that's precisely what Standard and Poor's warns in a new report this week that suggests that India may become the first "fallen angel" among the BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China). Predictably, New Delhi's response has been to plug its ears and proclaim that everything is just A-OK. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee declared himself "fully seized of the current situation" and "confident that there will be a turnaround in our growth prospects in the ...
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Sadanand Dhume: The Man With No Plan for Pakistan

Sadanand Dhume: The Man With No Plan for Pakistan

Wall Street Journal — Pakistan's been a problem child for so long that even the dramatic appears mundane nowadays. Pakistani militants killed in drone strikes, the judiciary threatening to bring down an elected government-these are nothing new. But a poll released Wednesday ought to make even the most seasoned watchers sit up and take note. Pakistan's frustrated population is growing ever more extremist, and many are starting to see a charlatan as their political savior. The Pew Global Attitudes Project reveals that nearly three out of four Pakistanis view the United States as an enemy, up from about two out of three who felt ...
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The House of Nehru-Gandhi - By Sadanand Dhume

The House of Nehru-Gandhi - By Sadanand Dhume

www.foreignpolicy.com — India will elect its 13th president on July 22, when votes cast earlier this week by about 5,000 national and state legislators are tallied. The almost certain winner is former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, a career politician and the official candidate of the ruling Congress Party. Though the largely ceremonial office carries little clout-the prime minister wields executive power-India's president is nonetheless the country's official head of state. Not surprisingly, the national media has giddily covered every twist and turn in Mukherjee's likely ascent to Rashtrapati Bhavan, the palatial 340-room estate completed in 1929 for the viceroy of British India.
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India Singhs the Blues - By Sadanand Dhume

India Singhs the Blues - By Sadanand Dhume

www.foreignpolicy.com — Is India's economic juggernaut in danger of turning into a train wreck? Not so long ago, it seemed that the country's rise couldn't be stopped: the economy was expanding at nearly double-digit rates,and everyone from global shampoo manufacturers to Western think tanks was racing to put an India strategy in place. But by the first three months of 2012, GDP growth had slowed to a nine-year low of 5.3 percent, its eighth straight quarterly decline. Now, scarcely a week passes without news of the rupee nose-diving to a new historic low against the dollar.
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Failure 2.0 - By Sadanand Dhume

Failure 2.0 - By Sadanand Dhume

www.foreignpolicy.com — Like a pesky ghost that won't be exorcized, Jawaharlal Nehru'snonalignment policy continues to hover over India's foreign relations. Later this month, New Delhi will host its first BRICS summit, an oddball gathering of authoritarian and democratic nations united only by regional heft and implicit opposition to the U.S.-led international order. Just last week, a 70-member trade delegation headed to Tehran to explore fresh opportunities for Indian companies in the Islamic republic, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai having previously declared that the recent, tougher round of EU and U.S. sanctions on Iran were inapplicable to India.
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Sadanand Dhume: Pakistani Liberals Are No Leap of Faith

Sadanand Dhume: Pakistani Liberals Are No Leap of Faith

Wall Street Journal — This isn't the best time to be a Pakistani liberal. Opinion polling shows most Pakistanis thinking of America as an enemy, democracy as an unwelcome concept and the imposition of Shariah law as a no-brainer. Meanwhile, recent news out of the country involves the judiciary taking down an elected prime minister and politicians like Imran Khan riding high by invoking anti-imperialist and Islamist ideas, even as an Urdu-language media remains saturated with hyper-nationalism. Against this backdrop, the world can't be blamed for regarding the Pakistani liberal as an exotic hothouse flower with no roots in the country's unforgiving soil. As ...
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Sadanand Dhume: India Still Privileges Princelings

Sadanand Dhume: India Still Privileges Princelings

Wall Street Journal — The big winner of recent state elections in India was not the resurgent Samajwadi Party, though it celebrated an historic victory over the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party, the Congress Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party in populous Uttar Pradesh state. No, what triumphed last week was India's culture of dynastic politics. Two new chief ministers and a re-elected deputy chief minister showcase the hold powerful families still exert over public life in the world's largest democracy. Given India's history, this may not appear to be a pressing problem. Family and clan have always formed the building blocks of society, and ...
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The 'Untouchable' - By Sadanand Dhume

The 'Untouchable' - By Sadanand Dhume

www.foreignpolicy.com — Millions of voters will head to the polls this week for the first phase of what are often called India's second-most important elections -- for a new government in Uttar Pradesh, the country's largest state and home to about one in six of its 1.2 billion citizens. If it were an independent country, UP, as it is commonly known, would be the world's fifth-most populous, roughly the size of Brazil. In the drama of Indian democracy, UP has always played a starring role. Eight of India's 13 prime ministers, including Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, have come from the Hindi heartland state, which sits along India's northern border with Nepal.
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Gandhi's Revenge - By Sadanand Dhume

Gandhi's Revenge - By Sadanand Dhume

www.foreignpolicy.com — In India, it's been the year of the scam. Over the past 12 months, allegations of graft or wrongdoing have touched, among others, Parliament, the media, mining, construction, hospitals, airlines, and sports. But after bubbling for the better part of a year, India's national debate over corruption may finally have come to a boil. The government and India's political class more broadly face an unprecedented wave of middle-class anger at how the country is being run. If channeled toward formal politics -- instead of being dissipated in activism alone -- it could be the first step in giving India the kind of governance many of its citizens feel it deserves.
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