10 hours ago
- Business
- New Indian Express
India at the crossroads with bully Trump
Amidst this chaos, Prime Minister Modi's foreign policy team is beginning to look adrift. S Jaishankar, once hailed as the architect of India's confident global stance, now finds himself presiding over its diplomatic contraction. The balance-of-power game he so carefully choreographed is collapsing under the weight of America's unilateralism and its fatigue with India's fence-sitting. Will Modi make a course correction and appoint a new UN-trained foreign minister to walk India out of this Trumpian geopolitical gutter?
A recalibration is essential—not just to salvage bilateral ties with the US, but to prevent India's world stature from being sabotaged as an unreliable ally with too many allegiances and not enough friends. If India is to reclaim its global voice, it must abandon the illusion that being everywhere at once is the same as leading. Trump's economic nationalism has turned into a direct assault on Indian manufacturing ambitions. Fresh tariffs on pharmaceuticals, electronics, and auto components—many of which form the bedrock of India's export growth—are back on the table. The H-1B visa pipeline is narrowing. India still has leverage. Its economy, diaspora, and strategic geography still matter. But it must now act like a serious power by choosing sides when necessary, holding partners accountable, and recognising when the winds have changed. In Trump's binary world, except for himself, there's no room for gurus—only dealmakers, debtors, and those who know when to pick a side. Unilaterally.
