Roundtable on Populism in Contemporary Indian Politics

PRIA in collaboration with Asia Democracy Research Network (ADRN) has conducted a research study on Populism in Contemporary Indian Politics.  This roundtable was the platform to present the preliminary findings of the above mentioned study.

 The programme was attended by noble academicians and experts from voluntary sector.

The introduction was given by Dr. Kaustuv K Bandyopadhyay, Director-programmes. He explained about the birth of Asia Democracy Research Network (ADRN)  for which PRIA is also a founding member. Also briefed about the two legs of ADRN, being coordinated/managed by in such was that one is by PRIA  and other is by East Asia Institute, Korea. 

After addressing various issues namely challenges in democracy, anti-corruption and gender equality in the past years, now this platform came with a new topic “Populism in Democracy.”

Mr. Kaustuv Chakraborti has given the presentation of the findings and various ways of Populism in Indian context such as MGNREGS by UPA-1, AMMA Canteen Tamil Nadu government, Laptop distribution by government in Uttar Pradesh and Demonetisation by Union Govt were some examples shown.

Eminent personalities such as Dr. Bishnu Mohapatra (Academician), Mr.Bijoy Patra (development professional), Mr.Harsh Jaitli (CEO VANI), and Ms. Yamini (Cultural Heritage) contributed to the discussion passionately.

Dr. Rajesh Tandon, Founder –cum- President PRIA chaired the discussions. He remarked that populism always linked to the electoral democracy in the Indian context.

Through this session, the discussants discussed about the context in which populism is practiced in contemporary Indian politics, its impact on Indian democracy and the role of civil society vis-à-vis populism.

The programme was attended by  28 participants (17 female and 11 male)