Russian bear hug and US rap: Should India shed its strategic ambivalence?

Vladimir Putin could not have had better optics than this. While NATO allies US, Germany, Netherlands, and Romania announced they were sending Patriot missiles and batteries to Ukraine and a host of other countries like Norway and Spain and the United Kingdom said they were readying to provide munitions to fight off Russia, here was our Prime Minister Narendra Modi sharing a bear hug with the Russian President. The timing was questionable. Why hold a India-Russia summit in Moscow as NATO leaders gathered in Washington to mark the transatlantic alliance’s 75th anniversary? Why didn’t India wait for the BRICS summit in Kazan in October? Which would have made it far less personal. Anushka Saxena analyses.