Member of Indian Parliament Rahul Gandhi Talks Politics, Democracy at Einaudi Center Event

On Tuesday, the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies hosted Rahul Gandhi in conversation with Prof. Kaushik Basu, economics —  exploring how governments can preserve democracy in the face of the pandemic, power vacuums and increasing partisanship. Gandhi is a prominent member of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s parliament, and previously served as president of the Indian National Congress party. He is the great-grandson of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a position which his grandmother and father have also held. 

The discussion was open to the Cornell community and was also livestreamed on Facebook. The virtual format has allowed the Cornell South Asia Program to broadcast its programming to a wider audience and for the event to be covered by multiple Indian media outlets. 

“It’s not only people in Ithaca,” said Prof. Daniel Bass, anthropology, who serves as manager of the South Asia Program. “We’ve also had people attending our events from all across South Asia as well as Europe and Australia.”

The event was organized by the Einaudi Center’s South Asia Program and came about thanks to Basu.