India’s stance on the US-Israel attack on Iran, and the latter’s widening of the conflict to Arab countries and oil trade routes, need not be governed by “emotional” reasons, a top Indian ex-diplomat has said.. India’s PM Narendra Modi with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu in a car during his visit to Israel in February. (Photo: X/@narendramodi/ANI File). “The issue is not whether India should be ‘for’ or ‘against’ Israel, the United States, Iran, or the Gulf states in some emotional or ideological sense,” wrote Nirupama Menon Rao, former foreign secretary, on X.. “The issue is whether any of these relationships, as they are currently conducted, advance India’s long-term interests without narrowing India’s strategic autonomy,” she argued.. Follow | Live updates on the US-Iran conflict. Rao, who served as India’s envoy to the US, China and Sri Lanka during her career, opined that India’s strength has “always lain in balance — in keeping multiple relationships alive at once, in speaking across divides, and in refusing to let any one partnership become a trap”.. Also read | Jaishankar, Iran FM discuss Brics role in regional security amid West Asia conflict. She said that must not be seen as weakness: “It is the essence of serious statecraft for a country of India’s scale, geography, and civilizational depth.”. About “recent years”, she said, the tone of the domestic discourse has changed.. “There is a marked tendency to see Israel less as a partner than an object of admiration, even envy — a symbol of unapologetic force, swift retaliation, and the fantasy of unencumbered power. Much of the media has climbed aboard this train, cheering Israel less as a state with which India has specific interests than as a projection of their own ideological desires,” she argued.. Saying that’s where “the danger lies”, she further argued that admiration for Israeli military prowess cannot be seen as strategy. “It is emotional substitution… We cannot afford to inherit another country’s siege mentality as if it were our own doctrine.”. Also read | India, US close to critical minerals deal, big announcement expected soon: Envoy Sergio Gor. “The real test for India is not whether it can applaud force. It is whether it can preserve room for manoeuvre, protect its energy and maritime interests, maintain credibility across West Asia, and keep its own voice. A country like India should not suffer from ‘Israel envy’. It should have the confidence to be itself. I am sure it can,” she said.. India has sought to project the image of an equidistant votary of peace in the US-Iran conflict, even as PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel just ahead of the war breakout on February 28 was seen by the Opposition as a tacit pre-backing of the US and Israel.. PM Modi visited Israel on February 25–26, meeting with PM Benjamin Netanyahu and addressing a special session of the Knesset in Jerusalem, where he declared, “India stands with 

 The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a Delhi High Court order directing the Lokpal of India to grant sanction within two months to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for filing a charge sheet against Trinamool Congress (TMC) parliamentarian Mahua Moitra for allegedly accepting money and favours to ask questions in Parliament.. SC stays Lokpal sanction order for CBI to file charge sheet against Moitra. The order was passed on a petition filed by the Lokpal of India challenging two orders of the HC — one on December 19, 2025, directing it to grant sanction within a month, followed by another order on January 23 extending this time by two months.. A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said, “The order of the high court passed on January 23 shall remain stayed…Meanwhile Lokpal of India need not comply with paragraph 89 of the judgment of December 19 of the Delhi high court.”. “The Lokpal is requested to accord its consideration for grant of sanction under Section 20 of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act 2013, strictly in accordance with provisions thereof as construed hereinabove, within a period of one month from today,” the HC judgment said.. The Lokpal, represented by senior advocate Ranjit Kumar and advocate Nishant Katneshwarkar, said that its appeal only seeks to settle the law and the procedure and manner in which Lokpal should act. Kumar said, “We need an authoritative pronouncement to enable us know the procedure to be followed under the Lokpal Act 2013. We are not here for one or two individuals but on the interpretation of certain sections of the Act.”. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for CBI, informed the court that it supports the order of the High Court so far as the interpretation of the Act is concerned, as the respondent needs to be investigated.. Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha in December 2023 on an ethics panel’s recommendation for allegedly giving her official ID to Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani to post questions on the Lok Sabha portal. She is accused of receiving expensive gifts and funding for trips abroad in return. Hiranandani has corroborated the charges. Moitra, who was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 2024, has denied them.. In October 2023, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla based on a complaint by lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai, who alleged that Moitra accepted money and favours to ask questions in Parliament. The same month, he approached Lokpal over the “cash-for-query” charge against Moitra.. Moitra was represented in the top court by senior advocate Nidhesh Gupta, while the complainant Dubey was not represented in court.. The bench noted that the interpretation of the Lokpal Act has come up before the court for the first time and issued notice to Moitra along with CBI and the complainant — BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who complained against Moitra.. “Lokpal is an Act to ensure and insulate enquiry and instit 

 The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday served notices on Telangana Jagruthi president Kalvakuntla Kavitha in connection with the alleged Delhi liquor fraud, asking her to appear before the Delhi high court on March 16, people familiar with the matter said.. A team of CBI officers came to the residence of Kavitha, daughter of former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, in Banjara Hills in the afternoon and issued the summons. (PTI file photo). A team of CBI officers came to the residence of Kavitha, daughter of former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, in Banjara Hills in the afternoon and issued the summons. “Since Kavitha was unwell, the team handed the notices to her husband Anil Kumar,” a Telangana Jagruthi functionary said.. Apart from Kavitha, the CBI served notices on businessmen Arun Ramachandra Pillai, Abhiskeh Boinpally and Sharat Reddy and Telugu Desam Party MP from Ongole Magunta Srinivas Reddy. 

 The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday served notices on Telangana Jagruthi president Kalvakuntla Kavitha in connection with the alleged Delhi liquor fraud, asking her to appear before the Delhi high court on March 16, people familiar with the matter said.. A team of CBI officers came to the residence of Kavitha, daughter of former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, in Banjara Hills in the afternoon and issued the summons. (PTI file photo). A team of CBI officers came to the residence of Kavitha, daughter of former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, in Banjara Hills in the afternoon and issued the summons. “Since Kavitha was unwell, the team handed the notices to her husband Anil Kumar,” a Telangana Jagruthi functionary said.. Apart from Kavitha, the CBI served notices on businessmen Arun Ramachandra Pillai, Abhiskeh Boinpally and Sharat Reddy and Telugu Desam Party MP from Ongole Magunta Srinivas Reddy. 

 In a world where brutal force rather than diplomacy or dialogue is decisive, India needs to sharply reduce its vulnerabilities, increase its capacities and multiply its capabilities.. US has deployed its top warships in Middle East amid the ongoing war with Iran.. While US President Donald Trump has used the ‘might is right’ doctrine in Venezuela in January and now in Iran in tandem with Israel, Russia has used the same doctrine in Ukraine since February 2022 and China is using the same strong arm tactics against Taiwan for the past decade. Just as Ukraine has dragged Europe into its conflict with Moscow, Iran has triggered a global energy crisis by targeting commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf and made the entire Middle-East and beyond collateral damage to its war game plan.. The short-sightedness of the Indian governments in the past becomes evident when we realize that US and Russia are energy secure, rising power China has secured its energy needs through pipelines and long term contracts. A never say die votary of peace and non-alignment in the past, India is vulnerable as it is a major importer of oil, LNG, LPG and fertilizers. The Indian problem is compounded by the fact that it is not an original equipment manufacturer of major hardware platforms and depends on countries like Russia, France, Israel and US for its national security needs. The Indian armed forces would prefer to buy equipment from abroad as the Indian design, develop and manufacture PSUs take eons to deliver on a technology, which virtually gets outdated even before it is inducted into Indian armed forces.. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has gone blue in the face talking about ‘Aatmanirbharta’ and need to develop indigenous hardware platforms, the Indian reliance on imported platforms and stand-off weapons has not decreased dramatically as the civilian-military bureaucracy of the Indian national security does not trust the Indian defence sector and vice-versa as they always opt for the safest route.. With India being the fourth-largest economy and the fourth-largest military power, it does not behove us to rely on third parties for national or energy security needs when it comes to core issues of military manufacturing, external intelligence or science and technology development. On top of that, dragging the nation down are multiple bureaucratic compliances for any entrepreneur ready to do business in India.. But even before we start examining the solution to all these most urgent issues, India needs to be doctrinally clear in its mind as to what is the big objective of the country. Strategic autonomy becomes an exercise in obfuscation if it is a mere justification without implementation on ground. The Indian bureaucracy including diplomats still view the Modi government’s decisions from the prism of anti or pro US, Russia and now China. Weaned on non-alignment, socialism, “Aman ki Aasha” and Palestinian cause, a large section of Indian bureaucracy are