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Thursday, April 9, 2026
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National Interest

Modi’s Bharat vs Indira’s India: 11-yr report card of politics, diplomacy, economy, nationalism

As Narendra Modi becomes India’s second-longest consecutively serving Prime Minister, we look at how he compares with Indira Gandhi across four key dimensions.

Strategic partner one day, tactical nightmare the next: India’s learning Trumplomacy the hard way

Public, loud, upfront, filled with impropriety and high praise sometimes laced with insults. This is what we call Trumplomacy. But the larger objective is the same: American supremacy.

RSS chief Bhagwat draws the line at 75. India’s politics stares at the Modi Exception

BJP has no dynastic succession, at least not at the top. You can trace this back to Vajpayee-Advani era. This act of spotting, empowering younger talent is even more striking with the choice of BJP presidents.

Kutch was the cue, Sindoor the signal. India needs a 6-month, 2-yr & 5-yr plan for Asim Munir

Kutch is our most forgotten war with Pakistan. Learn from it and draw up a plan for the next six months, two years and five years.

New York, New Comrade. Mayor Mamdani and his India-style socialism

Zohran Mamdani’s faith, support for Gaza, dislike of Modi and Netanyahu are reasons why many in India are unhappy to see his rise rather than celebrate it as another ‘Indian’ conquest.

India is re-hyphenating itself with Pakistan all over again. It needs a new 3D strategy

China and Pakistan are in a tight strategic alliance. India must deal with them one at a time but be prepared in case they decide to collude.

India-Pakistan terms of engagement: H-word, M-word & the Trump hyphenation

Return to hyphenation is dreaded because our successive govts have laboured for three decades to rid us of what we see as the equivalence big powers used to draw between us and Pakistan. Three things follow.

Op Sindoor is the first battle in India’s two-front war. A vicious pawn in a King’s Gambit

The Chinese use Pakistan as a cheap instrument to triangulate India between them. It is safer to presume that the Chinese now see Pakistan as an extension of their Western Theatre Command.

Asim Munir just stole his 5th star & has nothing to show for it. It’ll make him desperate, dangerous

Asim Munir locked up Imran Khan, had his handmaiden parliament give himself an extended tenure. But the additional jingle of that fifth star will not change facts on the ground.

There’s an all-new N-word now. And India’s soft power has become its hard liability

India is better positioned in the world than at any point post-Cold war. We have to decide if global opinion matters to us or not. If it does, we must engage with their media, think tanks, civil society.

On Camera

A stronger Iran has emerged from the rubble. US learned the lesson 40 days late

The US and Israel’s assassinations of Iranian leadership ended up bestowing martyrdom on those killed. Shias saw the deaths as a continuity of martyrdom from the Battle of Karbala.

Data centre gold rush risks blackouts, central electricity body warns states against tripping grids

India’s fast-growing data centre sector may strain state electricity networks; Central Electricity Authority has urged Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu to boost capacity.

Theaterisation in play: Air Headquarters to control strategic assets  

Exclusive: Theaterisation proposal has been stuck over how limited air assets would be divided. Consensus reached on division of air assets among 3 theatres, it is learnt.

China insulated itself against energy shocks. India is ‘all talk, no walk’

China patiently invested capital, skill and technology in coal gasification. Unlike it, we won’t move from words to action. As crude prices decline, we lose interest.