The 'West' needs to be confronted and defeated, but it can only be defeated, can only be civilised, by the idea that all of us enjoy equal rights.

Your latest book, The Message, is proof that you were willing to not only take criticism in good faith, but do the hard work of learning to do better.

The utter failure of the US to influence Israel in West Asia over the last year is dramatically weakening its ability to confront Russia and China, and there is little hope of change.

As the NDA stumbles from one mistake to another, Modi finds himself dizzy after making u-turn after u-turn.

Foreign policy is about the furtherance of domestic needs – the security and well-being of Indian citizens – but Modi’s trip seems only to have been designed to deal with the consequence of past mistakes.

There are three possible explanations for why the Indian government misread the situation in Bangladesh so catastrophically.

The gutting of Article 370 five years ago was only the last part of decades of anti-democratic actions that India has taken in Kashmir, and its reversal requires a complete break from the past. 

Chapter 13 in the Economic Survey of India, which purports to offer an Indian lens to the problem of climate change, is a joke in bad taste, and an insult to millions of Indian dealing with climate induced disasters.

After his inauguration, US president Joe Biden laid out a framework for engaging with the world based on past alliances, ignoring developing countries, and has faced consequences as a result.

I would ask all those that have ignored and dismissed us for so long to please see us for what we are – your fellow citizens. 

The most interesting prospects are with Pakistan and China, both countries with which India has tense relations, so much so that Modi has reportedly not even replied to the congratulations sent by these two countries. But during his inauguration in 2014, Modi invited all the political leaders from South Asian countries.

I fear we have become a people where all we have to offer in the face of the greatest of atrocities, to the deaths of millions, is only silence. 

The impunity that Israel enjoyed was due to very specific domestic factors in the US and Europe, as well as strategic interests. Netanyahu has managed to significantly erode it by showing its allies that blind support makes them unable to continue with the illusion of civilisation.

This contrasts the era of Manmohan Singh's leadership where such mentions of xenophobia would never arise.

It is hard to argue that it does not, with the long list of brutalities and a government validating hate, but the government is not the country. Elections are when people get to choose a new one.

Nehru was saying that India, and other post-colonial countries, were profoundly interested in European problems, and was drawing a strong link between handling wars in one place and those of another. This is the exact opposite of Jaishankar suggesting that the challenges India has with China are separate.

The most spectacular failure of Modi’s stint has been in foreign policy. When Manmohan Singh demitted office, India had enough standing that Modi could invite all SAARC prime ministers to his inauguration. India was not only the pre-eminent country in the region, other South Asian countries did not mind gathering under its aegis.

To look away from evil is evil, I was taught, but what evil is this to continue to look upon evil, and more evil, and even more evil? Displaced, starved, bombed, and shot, these people will continue to die. What dies in us as we continue to watch, and do nothing?

With 87% of extracted groundwater in India used for irrigation, the future looks bleak. A 2019 Indian government report estimated that 74% of the area where wheat is cultivated, and 65% of the area where rice is grown, will face water shortages.

There is a void in India's strategic thinking. In the last 10 years, there has been no release of a White Paper or strategy document by the Narendra Modi government.