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Ashutosh Varshney

Ashutosh Varshney

Indian Express

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Bihar beyond Buddha and Mandal—why the 2025 polls are critical for Indian democracy

It is not often noted, but in the North, Bihar is the only state where the BJP has not come to power on its own. The party's desire to turn Bihar into...

previous day 10

ThePrint

Ashutosh Varshney

America under Trump — more than democratic backsliding, less than a right-wing revolution

The attempted revolution faces three structural limits, and is likely to falter.

14.10.2025 20

ThePrint

Ashutosh Varshney

Pakistan is getting new friends. Conflicts with India will only grow

Pakistan is likely to enjoy closeness with the US, China and Saudi Arabia. This is different from its relative isolation of recent years.

30.09.2025 10

ThePrint

Ashutosh Varshney

Charlie Kirk assassination is telling us something about American democracy

Most observers say that the degree of polarisation in the US today is much greater than in the '60s, with the political elite so deeply divided that...

16.09.2025 10

ThePrint

Ashutosh Varshney

China will be more central to India now. Though an anti-US unity is premature

Even with the option of EU markets, China will have to be a significant part of India’s economic policy. But the difficult security relationship is...

02.09.2025 10

ThePrint

Ashutosh Varshney

Indian foreign policy is in free fall. Can we balance national pride with new power reality?

Unless dramatic reversals take place, the core of India’s foreign policy, which, at least since 2000, has focused on the US, Pakistan, China, and...

19.08.2025 50

ThePrint

Ashutosh Varshney

India’s export basket has no irreplaceables. It’s a vulnerability in Trump’s power politics

Tariffs have been used in the past by countries like Japan and South, to promote or hinder industrialisation. The surprise in Trump’s tariff...

05.08.2025 10

ThePrint

Ashutosh Varshney

Bihar mimics 19th-century American South. Citizenship is now weaponised to exclude voters

Disenfranchisement by institutional fiat is profoundly undemocratic. The effect of the ECI's new documentary process in Bihar will tilt the scales in...

22.07.2025 10

ThePrint

Ashutosh Varshney

Meaning of Zohran Mamdani lies in an admission that globalisation failed to lift all boats

At a deeper level, both Left and Right populism are linked to globalisation, the world’s greatest economic force between 1980-2010.

01.07.2025 10

ThePrint

Ashutosh Varshney

The new and the old in the most recent India-Pakistan hostilities

14.05.2025 10

Indian Express

Ashutosh Varshney

The new and the old in the most recent India-Pakistan hostilities

14.05.2025 4

Indian Express

Ashutosh Varshney

Democracy has provided the rationale for tariffs. It will produce a reaction against it

09.04.2025 20

Indian Express

Ashutosh Varshney

Democracy has provided the rationale for tariffs. It will produce a reaction against it

09.04.2025 8

Indian Express

Ashutosh Varshney

In Trump-Modi Summit, benefits for the US are greater

Trump’s desire to demand subservience to power was expected. That Modi would succumb so easily came as a surprise

17.02.2025 5

Indian Express

Ashutosh Varshney

Express View on Tejashwi Yadav as RJD's CM face: A new calibration

23.01.2025 10

Indian Express

Ashutosh Varshney

With Donald Trump’s return, a very different America is upon us

23.01.2025 20

Indian Express

Ashutosh Varshney

The Hindutva-Ambedkar puzzle

The BJP’s principal claim was that it had done more than any other major party to restore the justly great status of Ambedkar in the national...

07.01.2025 8

Indian Express

Ashutosh Varshney

How Manmohan Singh created the middle class – and didn't think welfare was government largesse

Unwavering civility would perhaps be the best way to describe what I experienced. Even when in positions of high power, arrogance never touched...

29.12.2024 5

Indian Express

Ashutosh Varshney

US under Trump will be less racially inclusive, more immigration-unfriendly, selectively retributive

08.11.2024 2

Indian Express

Ashutosh Varshney

Is US ready for Black woman president, or will White supremacy comeback ?

November 5 is America’s election day. It is hard to predict who will win the presidential race: Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. Current polls suggest...

24.10.2024 10

Indian Express

Ashutosh Varshney

Haryana, J&K poll results: Any larger claims about ideological victory or defeat are irrelevant

What a puzzling result in Haryana, and what a traditionally expected one in Jammu and Kashmir! Let’s begin with some statistics. According to the...

10.10.2024 20

Indian Express

Ashutosh Varshney

There is an attempt in the presidential campaign to revive the nativist tradition of American nationhood

03.10.2024 3

Indian Express

Ashutosh Varshney

Rulers of the Global South must remember the lessons that Sheikh Hasina forgot

A transition is underway in Bangladesh. Even if the new power-holders seek to turn a new page, transitions can’t fully be separated from history....

03.09.2024 10

Indian Express

Ashutosh Varshney