Putin Arrives in India; Modi’s Selective Reading of Gandhi Turns Duties Into Tool of Authoritarianism; DU Will Vet Faculty Talks for International Events

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Snapshot of the day

December 4, 2025

Siddharth Varadarajan

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again embraced each other on camera as the former arrived in Delhi for his two-day visit, but their latest meeting takes place under significantly different conditions compared to their last one in Tianjin – given the heightened tariffs targeting trade in Russian oil amid Moscow’s unceasing war on Ukraine, India’s trade talks with Washington and Brussels, and the EU leadership’s prospective presence as chief guests for the Republic Day next year.

In a piece in the latest edition of Foreign Affairs, James Crabtree and Rudra Chaudhuri caution against reading too much into the optics of events like the Putin visit:

“This signalling … is not tantamount, as some observers have suggested, to India abandoning its recent foreign policy strategy for a wholly different approach. Instead, the path that India seems to be taking—and, indeed, should be takilng—is a form of what its foreign policy establishment often calls “multialignment,”an orientation designed to build stronger ties with many countries, even if those states have contradictory interests.

“Despite the friction of this year, the United States will remain India’s most important partner, albeit a more erratic and occasionally troublesome one. India will also continue to cultivate relationships with economically and technological capable middle powers, including Australia, Japan, Singapore, and the Gulf states. But the place where Indian foreign policy might have the most to gain is in Europe. Although not a like-for-like replacement for the United States, Europe is a reliable partner with strong technological capabilities, shared concerns about Chinese coercion, and a steadier foreign policy than that currently evident in Washington. By pursuing a renewed multialignment in this way, New Delhi can try to hedge against both American unpredictability and Chinese aggression while maintaining the strategic autonomy that has long been central to its foreign policy doctrine.”

Ahead of Putin’s visit, the families of the young Indian men who allege they were lured and tricked into fighting for Russia in the Ukraine war staged another demonstration at Jantar Mantar seeking their safe return home. Hanuman Beniwal, the opposition Rashtriya Loktantrik Party’s MP for Rajasthan’s Nagaur, also spoke on the issue in parliament on Wednesday and demanded that it be “raised at the highest political level”. The external affairs ministry last month pegged the number of Indians currently serving in the Russian military at 44, but Beniwal seemed to say there were 61 Indians fighting at the frontlines.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi of the Congress and Dimple Yadav of the Samajwadi Party have asked why the Modi government has abandoned the convention of arranging meetings between visiting heads of government/state and Opposition leaders.

IndiGo’s passengers fumed and its shares fell as it cancelled at least 175 flights this week as of early Thursday. The airline has acknowledged that new rules pertaining to pilot rest that kicked in last month have been a factor behind the debacle, and it’s not clear why exactly the spate of cancellations and delays has hit this week, but the Federation of Indian Pilots has charged IndiGo with effecting a hiring freeze, striking non-poaching agreements and “[maintaining] a pilot pay freeze through cartel-like behaviour” despite having plenty of time to prepare for the new rules.

Chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has said that the countries comprising the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance aka International IDEA – an intergovernmental organisation that aims to bolster ‘democratic political institutions and processes’ – has ‘invited’ India to assume its chairship in 2026 in light of its “successful conduct of free, fair and transparent elections”. We don’t know what he meant by ‘invited’, but we do know that the chairship is rotated among member countries and that a schedule designating India as 2026 chair was fixed as early as a year ago.

Sandeep Singh Sidhu, a veteran Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) superintendent and British Columbia native known professionally as “Sunny”, has filed a $9 million lawsuit in the Ontario Superior Court against the Indian government, accusing it of orchestrating a malicious disinformation drive that upended his life and career. The suit, with hearing set for early 2026, alleges that Indian officials recklessly portrayed Sidhu, a 20-year CBSA employee with no involvement in overseas politics, as a fugitive terrorist to sow discord. According to the statement of claim, prepared by Toronto lawyer Jeffrey Kroeker, Sidhu was singled out because of his common Sikh surname and his uniformed, public-facing role in national security. Indian officials have always strongly denied involvement in any disinformation campaign targeting Canadians.

Even as relations between India and US remain at an all-time low, a new survey reveals widespread disapproval of President Donald Trump’s second term, with majority of Australians, Japanese and Indians deeming it “harmful” to their countries with more Australians viewing the US as a liability than a partner in Asia, according to a 1000-people survey by the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney with the “region shaken by disruptive developments in the U.S. but still supporting coordinated responses to security challenges.”

At least four Chinese ‘survey’ vessels have been spotted in the Indian Ocean recently, shadowing India’s missile test preparations and turning its “backyard” into a stage for Beijing’s “power jostle,” notes The South China Morning Post. Meanwhile, China is “deploying a large number of naval and