© Thinkworks Pvt Ltd – Director of Centre for Policy and Research, Pratap Bhanu Mehta is a political scientist, philosopher, and the voice of syntheisis in society. As a public intellectual and democrat, he has given political dispensations, both globally and in India, a chance, looking at them for their potencies and possibilities. But when they have slipped fom their democratic values, Mehta has called them out and spoken truth to power. As democracies increasing embrace populism and authoritarianism in a post-truth world, how does Mehta make sense of these hard times?