Leading spin doctor and journalist Lance Price and former BBC Delhi correspondent Dr Andrew Whitehead discuss the rise of Narendra Modi to Prime Minister of India and ask whether he can transform the country..

Price and Whitehead discuss Modi’s victory in the largest election campaign the world has ever seen ‒ a masterclass in modern electioneering that broke new ground in use of social media and digital technologies. Modi took part in thousands of events and, to make sure he reached every town and village in such a vast country, his team created a life-size 3D hologram that was beamed to areas he could not reach in person. The pioneering techniques engaged millions of new, young voters and led Modi to a convincing victory. But can he now transform the country

Price is a former BBC political correspondent, deputy to Alastair Campbell in 10 Downing Street and Labour Party director of communications in the run-up to Tony Blair’s 2001 General Election win. He is now a political strategy consultant and also author of The Spin Doctor’s Diary.

Whitehead is a former BBC Delhi correspondent and now an honorary professor at the University of Nottingham and at Queen Mary, University of London and senior visiting research fellow at the King’s India Institute in London. He is author of A Mission in Kashmir.

The event is chaired by Vijay Joshi, a reader in economics at the University of Oxford and co-author of India’s Search for Wealth and Power.

Programme of Indian literature and culture.