Across the distance between Bengaluru and Washington, Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar found a mirror — claiming that Donald Trump's proposal to distribute $5,000 to every American adult echoed the welfare guarantee schemes his Congress government had pioneered in Karnataka. Speaking on Monday, Shivakumar framed the parallel not as coincidence but as confirmation: that direct, tangible promises to voters had proven so potent in India that they were now reshaping political strategy in the world's oldest democracy. The moment speaks to something larger — a global convergence around the ide