From April 23 to 29, 2026, large states in India held legislative assembly elections. The majority Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has campaigned on nationalist rhetoric and has engaged in outright Islamophobia and voter disenfranchisement, including sharing a shocking viral video of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma appearing to shoot an image of Bengali-speaking Muslims.
These developments indicate a deepening crisis in the institutions that have sustained India’s pluralist democracy at the very moment India seeks to position itself as a rising middle power. While the Trump administration has prioritized defense and trade ties with India, a BJP-led government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that sows internal division and exploits religious tension risks becoming a liability for U.S. interests: A partner consumed by religious tensions, domestic instability, and institutional decay is a far less reliable anchor for the United States’ Indo-Pacific strategy and its democratic values.
Please join the Center for American Progress and Hindus for Human Rights for a panel shedding light on the recent elections and the significance of India’s democratic backsliding in the world and what it means for the U.S.-India partnership. During the event we will hear from a range of Indian democracy defenders and policy experts and discuss what productive U.S. engagement looks like given the path Modi’s government is taking.
