“There is a time to speak and a time to keep silent."

— Ecclesiastes 3:7, The Bible.

If there is one man who knows the value of stony silence when relentlessly poked and provoked, it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The 12 years from the 2002 Gujarat riots to his becoming PM in 2014 are the biggest testimony to that. It is happening again, both from home and abroad, but in a different context.

US President Donald Trump started using the goad on India to get his way—a trade deal skewed in the US’s favour, a meek submission on Russian oil purchase and Operation Sindoor against Pakistan, and a public endorsement for the Nobel Peace Prize for himself.

Modi responded with a stoic silence and a trenchant refusal to stop buying Russian oil or let Pakistan go scot-free after the Pahalgam terror attack.

He reportedly stopped taking Trump’s calls, declined his invitation to the White House, and avoided world events in Sharm El-Sheikh and Kuala Lumpur, where he could have bumped into the US President.

The Indian Opposition, especially the Congress party,........

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