Banana republic in the making?: A South Asian perspective on India from Kathmandu

While the attitudes of their governments may wax and wane, the people who live in the countries neighbouring India all want friendship with the subcontinental superpower. In this, they see not only historical and cultural continuity but peace, political stability and economic growth for all countries in the region. Sadly, the flourishing India so zealously projected by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not evident from the outside. India was long the economic and political vanguard of the subcontinent, with its robust parliamentary system, social-democratic policies of growth and equity, independent media and critical academia, professional bureaucracy and security forces, and…