WHEN most European countries and Volodymyr Zelensky were praying together with American neocons for the collapse of Vladimir Putin’s Alaska summit with Donald Trump, India was vocal in hoping for its success. The Indian idea was laudable, only the argument was a tad self-regarding. If the talks ended on a positive note, assorted Indian analysts reasoned, the impugned oil trade with Russia would no longer draw Trump’s ire. Putin would have saved the day for New Delhi.

On a wing and a prayer, the Modi foreign policy has bodily lifted its model from international sports contests where the ousted team pulls out its pocket calculators to desperately speculate its chance of returning to the contest should some other team beat another team. China is also affected by Trump’s frowning on its Russian oil imports. But the Communist Party-backed Global Times headline seemed in no tearing hurry to eye Beijing-centred success or failure in the otherwise important US-Russia talks. All the paper said was: “Trump and Putin addressed a joint press conference.”

And that is more or less what we know did happen. Much else is speculative. It is evident, Prime Minister Modi’s foreign policy prefers to ride piggyback on future outcomes over which it exerts no control. This is not how it used to be. A vital difference has emerged between then and now.

Indira Gandhi took Soviet help to bridge military and economic gaps. Yet she censured Moscow when the ally invaded Afghanistan. Nehru had the best of........

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