Till just the other day the United States of America was my favourite foreign country. It was this thought that came first to mind when Donald Trump threatened Iran in these words last week. ‘A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.’ This annihilation has been postponed for two weeks while the world’s most powerful leader broods over his options and rejoices over what he has annihilated already. It is hard to believe that this man is the President of the United States and not a megalomaniac ruling some tiny, totalitarian outpost in the backwoods of the world.

This column does not usually concentrate much attention on geopolitics or foreign wars, but Trump has achieved the astonishing feat of making his war on Iran a domestic issue for too many countries. In India more so than others. As my friend and fellow columnist, Vir Sanghvi, pointed out last week, Trump was something of a Hindutva hero till just the other day. Last year, the Hindutva lunatic fringe assembled religious gatherings to pray for his victory in the American election. They proudly posted videos of posters and banners of Trump fluttering over the fires of Hindu rituals. We like building temples to political leaders we revere, and I remember fearing then that there were probably the foundations of a Trump temple being laid already in some Indian city or town.

This love for Trump was........

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