Episode Details

This week, Grand Tamasha commemorates the release of our 300th episode. We started this show as an experiment in the run-up to India’s 2019 general elections. Seven years and 300 episodes later, we’re still around, and no one is more surprised than we are.

While India has changed in many ways over the past seven years, one constant has been our occasional Grand Tamasha roundtables with Sadanand Dhume of the Wall Street Journal and the Council on Foreign Relations and Tanvi Madan of the Brookings Institution. It seemed only natural to celebrate our 300th episode by having them both on to discuss the latest in Indian politics and foreign policy. 

This week on the show, Milan, Sadanand, and Tanvi discuss the political fall-out of this summer’s Gen Z protests, the political future of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), and the churn within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Plus, the trio discuss Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the potential thaw in China-India relations, and whether ties between India and the United States can weather the current turbulence.

Episode notes:

1.        Sadanand Dhume, “An India-China Rapprochement Isn’t in the Cards,” Wall Street Journal, September 9, 2026.

2.        Sadanand Dhume, “India’s Global Image Problem,” Wall Street Journal, August 26, 2026. 

3.        Sadanand Dhume, “‘Cockroaches’ Threaten to Overrun Narendra Modi’s Kitchen,” Wall Street Journal, July 29, 2026. 

4.        Tanvi Madan, “India’s Strategy for Economic Security: Deny, Indigenize, and Diversify,” Asia Policy 21, no. 3 (2026).