Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is joining the ranks of Benjamin Netanyahu, Nelson Mandela, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Winston Churchill, and Yitzhak Rabin – the only other world leaders to have addressed the US Congress twice. It’s part of his state visit to the US, which is being hailed as a major moment for the India-US relationship, with key defense and technology deals expected. Though the relationship is often framed as one between two major democracies, rights groups and activists point out that India under Modi has seen a shrinking space for minorities, civil society, press freedom and dissent. So, what exactly is driving the relationship between the US and India?

In this episode: 

• Milan Vaishnav (@MilanV), Director of Carnegie Endowment for National Peace South Asia 

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Ashish Malhotra, with Chloe K. Li and Malika Bilal. Khaled Soltan fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik. Munera Al Dosari and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers.

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

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