@sushantsingh
Lecturer, Yale University || Consulting Editor, The Caravan [More: http://tiny.cc/YaleSushant] Earlier: Indian Army || Indian Express || Centre for Policy Research Books: Mission Overseas || Note by Note: The India Story 1947-2017
"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.
Was a commentator on this Carnegie discussion on two papers on nuclear escalation yesterday. It was a learning experience. www.youtube.com/live/nsnLPPc...
Had a superb conversation on @thenewsminute.com's South Central podcast this week with hosts Dhanya Rajendran and Pooja Prasanna, and fellow guest MK Venu - on
my essay in The Caravan on Gen Naravane's memoirs, the banned animated toon of The Wire, criminal defamation of journalists and much more
"It is here that the role of Jay Shah, the ICC chairman, comes into focus. ...This is why a failed T20 World Cup is not merely an ICC failure; it would be read as a personal failure of Shah, and by implication his father, India’s home minister Amit Shah."
"Cricket has survived this storm, but does not emerge stronger from it. The incentives now reward brinkmanship, not stability, and the precedent of political concessions assures that this crisis will not be the last."
I write on the T20 world cup Pak-India denouement
I spoke to Nidheesh Tyagi of Harkara on Gen Naravane's revelations and the issues raised by my essay on his memoir in The Caravan magazine. (in Hindi)
youtu.be/oaqmW94yeYs?...
Where I speak to Vishanu Sharma about The Caravan cover story on Galwan clash, buffer zones, political restrictions on opening fire on PLA and why August 2020 operations were not quid pro quo operations. Beyond the 'Jo uchit samjho' political directive to the army chief. (In Hindi)
I spoke to Karan Thapar about the The Caravan magazine's February cover story about the stunning revelations on China border crisis, beyond "jo uchit samjho", in Gen Naravane's unreleased memoir. We discussed the Galwan clash, firing restrictions, buffer zones and so much more.
"Pakistan’s chaos is a tragedy for its own fans; the BCCI’s calculated weaponisation of the sport is a global threat. ... Pakistan is indeed a mess, but the BCCI’s power may turn out to be a more dangerous illusion."
I write at Cricket et al on Pakistan decision: www.cricketetal.com/p/armageddon...
It is preciselu because Galwan and its aftermath were so thoroughly obscured by official messaging, amplified by a largely unquestioning media, that Naravane’s memoir matters. It raises unsettling questions about how little Indians know about the Ladakh crisis.
caravanmagazine.in/security/nav...
What really happened during the India-China border crisis, including at Galwan? Then army chief Gen MM Naravane's memoir provides extensive details, of political decision making, restrictions on the military and the disengagement process. That's why it perhaps remains unpublished till date.
“By the time Modi first became prime minister, Delhi had broken the old India-Pakistan hyphenation… Eleven years later, India has been re-hyphenated along with Pakistan and Bangladesh in the global conversation.”
I write in The Telegraph (Kolkata)
www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/all-...
“Poor governance has become the hallmark of Modi’s era, not the aberration… Policy is too often driven by optics, centralisation, and an urge to shock rather than steady, iterative improvement.”
On why the gap between India’s great-power rhetoric and its ability to protect citizens is widening.
"Too often, military history is taken over by symbolism. But Ikkis sides with the soldier, not the slogan. It respects bravery while acknowledging the futility of war. Its ending reinforces that military virtue lies in conduct, not celebration."
I write on Sriram Raghavan's new film, Ikkis.
"What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?" Where Hartosh and I discuss cricket beyond the sport - from the lens of CLR James - and thus, how today's Indian cricket represents the dirtiest bits of Indian politics, society and economy.
youtu.be/p6i8lbwzsyk?...
"The problem was compounded by India’s inability to hedge. When the US turned hostile, India should have been able to activate a robust relationship with Europe, lean on Russia, or find alternative sources of investment and trade."
In @themorningcontext.bsky.social, when Jaishankar needs a lobbyist
"The hope in New Delhi, as January 2026 unfolds, rests almost entirely on Sergio Gor, the new US ambassador to India. But what happens if Gor cannot move the needle? What happens if he, like so many others, cannot bridge the gap between India’s needs and Trump’s demands?"
I write on India-US ties
"That’s not cricket. Or, well, it is as the game is presently constituted."