Just when I thought I was out... they pulled me back in. Or, as they say, it is in the nature of bizarre things that you cannot look away. When I wrote last week about Modi's black box (newsflash: it is getting blacker), I thought this week I would move on to better things. But not a chance. Things got more bizarre and fascinating in India.

Last week, the assumption was that given India's massive bureaucracy and diplomatic muscle, the country would be saved by the bell and somehow manage to dodge the twenty-five per cent additional tariffs as a penalty for buying, refining and reselling embargoed Russian oil. Alas, that was not to be. Caught in the eddies of misfortune, the country walked right into it. When it came, the defence was weak sauce.

They couldn't make up their mind whether to cite national interest (Russia is too important to lose as a partner), sovereignty (India does what it wants), or highlight the alleged double standards (you did not penalise China). So the response was a mangled and garbled mix of all three. Why not stick to one? Because it is difficult to qualify any of these diplomatically. If Russia is such an indispensable partner, then why were you stringing along Ukraine? It is India's sovereign right to trade with whosoever it wants, but then it is America's sovereign right to slap as many tariffs as it wishes on goods and services coming into the country. And how will you explain your objection to the exemptions when you are actively courting China to make America jealous? Garbled reaction, zero impact.

After the fifty per cent tariffs and the exemptions given to certain sectors........

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