Podcast: Congress Manifesto, Left Politics; and Shashi Tharoor on the party’s 2019 Vision

This week on Grand Tamasha, Milan Vaishnav sits down with Roshan Kishore (data and political economy editor at the Hindustan Times). Then, Milan speaks with Congress Member of Parliament Dr. Shashi Tharoor.

This week on Grand Tamasha, Milan Vaishnav (Director of the South Asia programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) sits down with Roshan Kishore (data and political economy editor at the Hindustan Times). They discuss the Congress Party’s newly unveiled manifesto and its economic centerpiece - a new minimum income support scheme called “NYAY” or Nyuntam Aay Yojana.

The two also discuss the tensions between the Congress and Left parties in light of Rahul Gandhi’s decision to contest elections from Wayanad in Kerala and the general travails of Left politics in India today.

Then, Milan speaks with Congress Member of Parliament Dr. Shashi Tharoor, who took a short break from hectic campaigning in his constituency of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala to join the show.

Milan speaks with Tharoor about the Congress’ vision for 2019, the top concerns of voters in his constituency, and why the party has devoted so much energy to the issue of the controversy surrounding the Rafale fighter jet deal.

Milan also asks Tharoor about the future of secularism and why Tharoor has written about the need to reclaim Hinduism from Hindutva.