From the Press Gallery to the Lecture Hall

Dr. Mahendra Kumar Singh is Professor of Political Science at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University. Before academia, he spent over 13 years as a journalist at The Times of India, covering Parliament, national political parties, government policy, and the institutions of Indian public life.

That gives him two ways of seeing politics. A journalist watches events up close, day by day. An academic steps back to look for patterns and explanations. The conversation keeps moving between the two.

Drawing on his years reporting on both the BJP and the Indian National Congress, Dr. Singh explains why democratic parties can still be controlled by a small group of decision-makers. He connects this to the iron law of oligarchy, the idea that large organisations tend to concentrate power in a few hands, however democratic their rules.

The conversation turns to how India keeps relationships with Russia, Ukraine, the United States and other competing powers at once, why BRICS is pushing for a more equitable international economic order, and how India's economic dependence on China complicates their strategic rivalry.

Closer to home, he discusses India's relationship with Nepal, the consequences of the 2015 blockade at the border, and why shared history and culture cannot by themselves guarantee influence over a neighbour.

Dr. Singh reported on Aadhaar from its early development and interviewed Nandan Nilekani, who led the project. He describes how it changed the way welfare reaches people, the strategy behind introducing it gradually, and the questions it raises about privacy, government power and accountability.