Some things to Reconsider

 https://www.business-standard.com/opinion/columns/india-s-diplomacy-needs-to-move-from-demonstrative-style-to-hard-substance-125080501933_1.html Let’s begin with the obvious. R Jagannathan’s piece titled “India needs to up its diplomatic game” published in Business Standard dated Aug 6,2025 starts with the right note but soon meanders into a muddled defence of the very failures it gestures toward. The title implies urgency, even introspection. But the essay itself does little more than catalogue geopolitical anxieties while clinging to the same photo-op-driven framework that has defined Indian foreign policy for over a decade. To his credit, Jagannathan does briefly acknowledge the hollowness of Narendra Modi’s personal rapport-based diplomacy, stating that “personal rapport with global leaders is not a solid enough basis for conducting the kind of hard-nosed diplomacy that can deliver net gains for the country.” He nods at the performative spectacles of “Howdy Modi,” “Namaste...

  https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/indias-diplomacy-is-measured-not-mute/article69780623.ece Lewis Carroll once quipped, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” It seems Priyam Gandhi-Mody, in her recent op-ed, has taken that advice a bit too literally. With the enthusiasm of a Bhakt moonlighting as a strategist, she argues that India’s silence on global affairs is proof of rising diplomatic maturity. “India speaks when it matters,” she declares. Allow me to disagree — robustly. Let’s begin with the absurd. Amit Shah, in full campaign mode, not so long ago claimed that “Modi ne war rukwa dee” — that the Prime Minister stopped the Russia-Ukraine war. Never mind that the war hasn’t paused for a second. Neither Moscow nor Kyiv remembers this magical intervention. And yet, we are told this is what “measured” diplomacy looks like — restraint wrapped in gravitas. I call it what it is: a strategic muzzle, saffron-tinted and politically convenient. ...