I was on the One Decision podcast, hosted by Former head of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove and international journalist Rosanna Lockwood. It was recorded on Monday, and uploaded today.
youtu.be/ZNFAAj26k0E?...
"To conclude, the biggest lesson for India is not simply to buy more weapons. There are many exact weak points an adversary would try to exploit first. Every single lesson of the conflict in West Asia must be anchored to a concrete Indian vulnerability to build the system of systems."
In the Morning Context, I write on the 10 lessons which must be quickly learnt if the Indian military has to fulfil the political goals in the next conflict with Pakistan—or God forbid, China.
themorningcontext.com/chaos/ten-mi...
🚨🎧NEW episode of @chalkboardpolitics.bsky.social on the surprising global ramifications of the 2025 India-Pakistan conflict, incl. Pakistan’s role in the US-Iran talks. A rich conversation w/ @niloufersiddiqui.bsky.social @sushantsingh.bsky.social & student team.
goodauthority.org/news/how-did...
The May 2025 exchange marked the beginning of a broader strategic reversal in which Pakistan stopped looking isolated and India started looking exposed. India now faces the prospect of a more confident Pakistan backed by an array of allies, while its own strategic options are narrowing.
As Modi remains tethered to the domestic political narrative of aspiring to global leadership, he is being bypassed in the real corridors of power. Pakistan has outperformed India by manufacturing diplomatic relevance despite its internal problems and risks of failure.
I write in Foreign Policy
"The social contract between the citizen and the state is broken and the future rise of India is being sacrificed for the immediate survival of a regime that has run out of ideas."
The mis-sold foreign-policy narrative, the structural rot of an economy, and the corrosion of internal security and institutions. Together, they explain why, when the tide of favourable global conditions and domestic propaganda finally receded, India discovered that the emperor was naked.
Sunny is entitled to his evolving opinions and his inherent contradictions, but we should not mistake these shifts for profound strategic wisdom or insight into matters that fall outside his cricketing expertise.
The complexity of being Sunil Gavaskar and why his political arguments shrink his legacy as a bonafide cricketing great. In light of his recent diatribe against Indian corporates having Pakistani cricketers in their teams in foreign leagues, I look at the man and his politics in Cricket et al.
India is becoming an island of silence and evasion in a world that needs leadership and honesty. If India is to survive and thrive in this new era, it must return to a policy of genuine strategic independence. Sovereignty is not a gift that is granted by others but a power that must be exercised...
I write in The Telegraph on the West Asia crisis has only made it clearer what is wrong with Modi's foreign policy, and this tells us why India now needs a change.
Where Hartosh and I discuss the Indian military
"In this view, cricket is not merely a pastime or about athletic excellence; it is a massive platform to project a brand of nationalism that is increasingly narrow and intolerant."
The Indian side deservedly won the T20 World Cup and the players were magnificent. What happened next with ICC chair Jay Shah around should concern us more, because it has exposed something brittle beneath the triumphalism.
I write in Cricket et al
www.cricketetal.com/p/the-indian...
"India does not enhance its security or stature by keeping quiet as others redraw the rules of force around it. It does so only by speaking clearly, defending its principles consistently, and making it costly for partners and rivals alike to treat Indian interests as expendable."
"The idea that India’s ties with these nations are so fragile that a principled diplomatic position would shatter them underestimates how transactional, durable and interest-driven those relationships are on both sides."
In The Caravan magazine, I examine the claim that the Modi govt can't condemn Khamenei's killing or speak on the torpedoing of an Iranian boat close to our shores because it needs to protect Indian interests, mostly in the Gulf - and find it flawed and specious.
"This is not strategic autonomy. It is a risk multiplier. The question is not whether India can afford to alienate either the US or Israel; it is whether India can afford a West Asia engulfed in war.
If this truly is “not an era of war,” then Modi must act as if he believes his own words."
"It is time for the Modi government to stop being a prop in someone else’s Wag the Dog sequel. Instead, India should resume behaving like the steward of a vulnerable, globally exposed economy that understands the price of war in its own extended neighbourhood."
My quick take on the attack on Iran
On the eve of Carney’s trip, however, Ottawa has quietly signalled a shift, with senior officials saying they no longer believe India is now linked to violent crimes on Canadian soil.
For Delhi too, the emphasis on business is convenient.
This reset is not happening in a vacuum...
Modi's Russia approach should worry Carney, because it suggests that Modi will not stand up to Trump if forced to choose between Washington and Ottawa. If Trump signals displeasure with Canada in the future, Modi is likely to drop Carney’s agenda.
Me in Toronto Star
www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
My piece on Carney's India trip: "...the real constraint on Canada–India co-operation is not a lack of areas where interests align. It is a lack of insulation from domestic agendas. Almost every positive initiative can be derailed by a political shock that pulls old grievances back to the surface."
This is the great irony of the modern India-Pakistan fixture because if the rivalry were truly dead, it would no longer be the primary engine of the ICC’s business model. And ICC is nothing but the BCCI in very thin disguise, with the BCCI itself behaving as a cricketing arm of India’s ruling party.
"India needs Pakistan to exist as a mirror against which its progress can appear heroic. The very claim that “there is no rivalry” is itself a political act, meant to assert that India has moved so far ahead that competition is meaningless. It is a claim of superiority masquerading as detachment."
Having spent 10 years in a complete political circle, the Modi government has arrived at the same requirement as that by the United Progressive Alliance government. The difference is that the price has tripled, and India’s security environment has worsened...
www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/brok...
On the much hyped 114 Rafale deal and what it tells us about the crisis in the Indian Air Force, and how institutional memory has been sacrificed at the altar of Modi’s political grandstanding.
I write in The Telegraph
This is how sovereignty is eroded in practice. Not through spectacular treaty signatures but through a sequence of executive actions & side letters that align a country’s long-term choices with another power’s national security and economic interests without any real domestic debate about the costs.
