Modi's fuzzy peace path from Moscow to Kyiv

It is not often that Viswagurus get lectured by stand-up comedians. But that's precisely what seems to have happened in Kyiv six days ago, on August 23, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed there, with his two closest and wisest foreign policy wonks, Dr S Jaishankar and Dr (D Litt, conferred, Central University of Punjab) Ajith Doval, as if they were twin characters in a French Comic strip.

- V Sudarshan

The Prime Minister went on touting the line that he has been for some time that this is the era of peace, not of war, and every time he says it again, thousands have died in Ukraine and Gaza. It has left many diplomatic observers wondering, what then could be an era of war? Fuzzy logic and a stilted hand on the shoulders of Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the choreographed photoshoot aside, Modi's trip has laid bare some of the pressures as New Delhi picks its minefield laid by Zelenskyy and his allies.

For, almost a week after his first-hand, almost ring-side get-acquainted trip with the war from Kyiv's point of view, the Prime Minister seems unable to extricate himself from the diplomacy around it. Let us work backwards: On Monday he called Russian President Putin, after he got a call from US President Joe Biden, to convey to the Russian what had transpired in Kyiv. We know the roughly the outlines because President Zelenskii pointedly, even bluntly, laid down the markers of what he expected from New Delhi, cues that gave away the sum and substance of the expectations from India on Ukraine.