The word “shameless” has been thrown around so often in Indian political discourse that it risks losing its bite. But when a prominent opposition spokesperson recently asked whether the “S” in ‘silence’ stands for ‘shameless’, he touched something raw. The question landed because it speaks to a broader unease many Indians feel watching their public life unfold. Not the grand speeches or the viral videos, but the things left unsaid. The questions were dodged. The outrage that never arrives.

I think about this watching the news lately. On January 5, India’s Supreme Court denied bail to two student activists, Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, keeping them locked up for years without trial under anti-terrorism laws. They were arrested after the 2020 Delhi riots—violence that killed dozens and was sparked by protests against a controversial citizenship law. The government accused these students of giving inflammatory speeches that incited the violence. The court found their words dangerous enough to justify continued detention, yet others involved in the same case walked free. Legal experts pointed to government pressure on the judiciary. What struck me was not just the decision itself, but how quietly it passed. A few protests from leftist parties, some social media outrage, then silence. The main opposition party, Congress, barely made noise. When injustice becomes routine and nobody with real power seems bothered enough to fight it loudly, what message does that send?

This pattern shows up everywhere now. India stayed remarkably quiet when American forces essentially kidnapped Venezuela’s president recently. The government issued mild concern, nothing more. When the United States threatened countries trading with Russia or Iran with massive tariffs, hitting India’s oil imports and trade routes hard, the response was to quietly scale back investments in Iran’s Chabahar port and issue travel advisories. No strong pushback against American overreach. Perhaps there are diplomatic calculations at play, smoothing relations for trade deals or technology partnerships with Washington. But at what point does pragmatism become spinelessness? India once prided itself on strategic autonomy during the Cold War, on not bending to superpowers. That voice seems muted now, and the silence feels less like........

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