THOUGHT LEADERS DISCUSS A WIDE RANGE OF ISSUES IN FESTIVAL OF IDEAS

The Festival of Ideas, a two-day event held in New Delhi on 24-25 August, brought together leading thinkers and experts from a wide range of fields to discuss some of the most pressing issues facing the nation and the world today.

- RAHUL CHHABRA 

The two-day thought-provoking discussions, organised by NewsX, The Sunday Guardian and India News that are a part of the iTV Network, covered a wide range of topics, including politics, defence, economy, science, films, books, influencers, India’s soft power, faith and Hinduism.

In the political sphere, the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the Opposition’s alliance to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi dominated the debate. While Rahul Gandhi, the relevance of his family and his leadership style figured prominently. Author, Dr Aishwarya Pandit Sharma cautioned the Congress against drifting around buzzwords like “evolution of Rahul Gandhi” as the issue was of interest only to his party. She also highlighted Rahul’s failure to understand the situation on the ground, which has changed drastically. “The Congress is in denial about its problems,” she said, underlining the fact that the party has to understand that its cadre has seized to exit and it needs to be revived.