iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 19h

India's streets are seething. For the second time in a few months, the young people of the Cockroach Movement are shaking the foundations of Modi's rule. Is this the beginning of the end for Modi? I discuss with Prof Radhika Desai. youtu.be/PjIX_PnZcDc?...

youtu.be

Sushant Singh: Is This The End For Modi? Inside India's Gen Z Uprising

YouTube video by Radhika Desai - Geopolitical Economist

010 1

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

"When formal institutions of accountability cease to function, the street becomes the arena where ordinary people can assert agency and demand accountability. Moreover, in a country marked by deep socioeconomic inequality, the vote is only venue where every adult citizen is equal."

043 4

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

The ongoing crackdown on the streets of Delhi is a strategic error. Relying solely on police and paramilitary force is deepening public anger, radicalizing ordinary citizens, and making Modi look like a “frightened ruler hiding behind security forces.”

132 3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Modi is no longer governing. He’s cracking down on those protesting against voter list fraud. Indians are pushing back. And the world is taking note. My piece in Foreign Policy explores why Modi is finding it hard to win this round of democratic outcry. foreignpolicy.com/2026/10/14/i...

foreignpolicy.com

Modi’s Crackdown Is a Strategic Error

The violent escalation is deepening public anger in India as voter list protests grow.

1107 10

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Majoritarian politics of the BJP, with its penchant for mass mobilisations to go with the authoritarian rule, supplies the social logic for this institutional capture. Hindutva is not only an ideology but it also creates a political division between the “authentic nation” and the “suspect citizen”.

031 3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

As India's national capital is turned into a fortress to prevent all democratic protests, my essay in The Morning Context argues that reversing this institutional capture by the Modi regime is essential to restoring India’s constitutional democracy and making the country stronger.

themorningcontext.com

For a stronger India, reverse this institutional capture

The ruling party’s control over state institutions has come to look like ordinary governance. Reversing this capture is essential to restoring India’s constitutional democracy.

143 4

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"If the BAPS is merely a private sect, Modi’s endorsement is politically unnecessary. If it is part of India’s cultural diplomacy, then the government must answer for the standards under which it operates."

010 1

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

BAPS is now presented abroad as the benign face of Hinduism but is a non-state actor. The Paris episode and its past record raises tough questions: caste exclusion, slave labour, misogyny—and a very close relationship with Modi. My essay in The Caravan caravanmagazine.in/religion/bap...

caravanmagazine.in

The spiritual cronyism of Narendra Modi and the BAPS

The Eiffel Tower incident has brought national attention to how the BAPS operates within India, particularly under the Modi government.

120 2

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

"Beijing increasingly sees India acting at the behest of Washington and seeking friendly ties with China only after being treated poorly by Trump. More crucially, Beijing believes India has missed the bus under Modi for economic growth. It is not a peer of China and must be treated accordingly."

telegraphindia.com

In deference

The gap is clear: India wants the border to be the foundation on which ties are built, while China wants it to be one of the many issues to be managed while ties move forward on Beijing’s terms

023 3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

"Beijing now operates on the assessment that India lacks the economic and political weight to demand strategic parity. A new status quo is in place, one that reflects the power asymmetry between the two. Beijing wants the normalcy that Modi seeks, but that will strictly be on China’s terms."

112 2

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I spoke with Dr Radhika Desai on what was meant to be a conversation about the BRICS summit but we covered a vast amount of ground on geopolitics, India-China ties, India-US ties, Israel and the economy. As this video perhaps shows, I really enjoyed talking to her. youtu.be/37aHt69ViHE?...

youtu.be

Sushant Singh: Is India The Roadblock Stopping BRICS? | GEH W/ Radhika Desai

YouTube video by Radhika Desai - Geopolitical Economist

020 2

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

"They attempt to manage several audiences simultaneously: Western policy elites, Indian nationalists, American Hindu activists and the BJP establishment. The more they try to control the message, the less credible the message becomes, as Bhagwat’s utterances also demonstrated."

010 1

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

"The lesson is straightforward: influence cannot be manufactured through diaspora networks, carefully branded events or political donations. It requires honesty and credibility—and neither Bhagwat nor the RSS has it." I write @themorningcontext.bsky.social themorningcontext.com/chaos/rss-ch...

themorningcontext.com

RSS chief's North America visit did not go well. Its problems run deep

Influence cannot be manufactured through diaspora networks, carefully branded events or political donations. It requires honesty and credibility.

120 2

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Where Hartosh and I discuss the compulsory singing of all the stanzas of Vande Matram - we conclude that it needs to be opposed tooth and nail, because there is nothing national about this song. youtu.be/L7uJZOYm3ew

youtu.be

Vande Matram: Nothing national about this song | The Caravan Long View Episode 10

YouTube video by The Caravan Magazine

020 2

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

"Without such safeguards, intention may not be enough to contain the next crisis. It may instead be decided by a damaged data link, a misread satellite image, an unacknowledged loss—or a loitering munition that runs out of fuel over the wrong hill."

021 2

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Far from proving India’s ability to conduct conventional warfare under the nuclear shadow, Gen Chauhan ended up highlighting the dangers of inadvertent nuclear escalation when operational missteps are masked as controlled successes. I write in The Caravan.

caravanmagazine.in

A former chief of defence staff’s porous account of Operation Sindoor exposes the risks of nuclear escalation

Anil Chauhan, the chief of defence staff during the military clash with Pakistan in May last year, stated the official version of the operation, which the Narendra Modi government has tried to feed th...

142 4

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

India invokes BRICS to support its rhetoric on a multipolar world and reform of global institutions, yet its own behaviour remains cautious whenever those debates risk undermining its partnership with the US...it exposes the limits of Modi’s grandstanding. www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/tigh...

telegraphindia.com

Tightrope walk

India must avoid signing on to West-driven agendas that would alienate Russia, China or Iran, while simultaneously resisting Sino-Russian attempts to turn BRICS into an explicit anti-West platform

010 1

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

The Modi regime's posture in BRICS may be presented by some "as evidence of a doctrine of multi-alignment, but the record shows a narrow transactionalism that rarely converts into substantive outcomes beyond symbolic participation." I write in The Telegraph (Kolkata)

120 2

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Ultimately, a country’s true endurance is determined by its democratic resilience, institutional integrity and the capaciousness of its domestic social contract. If India ignores these structural lessons, it risks reproducing the very instability and institutional fragility it has long ridiculed...

061 6

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Cautionary Tale: Pakistan’s current global prestige can’t mask its reality of domestic decay. Therein also lies a lesson for contemporary India, even though any comparison should be made carefully. I write @thecaravanmagazine.bsky.app caravanmagazine.in/politics/pak...

caravanmagazine.in

Pakistan’s current global prestige cannot mask its domestic decay

Each external diplomatic win, such as the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, works as a temporary life-support system for the military establishment in Pakistan.

250 5

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

"India is no longer seen as a peer or a fellow developing country by most Chinese scholars and commentators. Top Chinese academics are upfront about stating that PM Modi has wasted a golden opportunity for India in his stint of more than a dozen years." I write in @themorningcontext.bsky.social

themorningcontext.com

China’s view of India has changed. It’s time New Delhi recognized that shift

Chinese diplomats to India are saying all the right things for Indian ears, but Beijing’s policy actions are moving in the opposite direction.

132 3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

I was on the China Global South Project podcast, discussing with Eric Olander the state of India-China relations and comparing our notes. youtu.be/Mc484hL5tfs?...

youtu.be

China's View of India Has Changed. Is New Delhi Ready?

YouTube video by The China-Global South Project (CGSP)

032 3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

"Perhaps the most consequential achievement of the protests was psychological. Fear of the Modi regime in India, classified as an electoral autocracy by global watchdogs, began to erode. That fear is difficult to measure, but it is central to Modi’s political power."

000 0

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

"These protests mattered because they revealed both the fragility of Modi’s political aura and the continued possibility of democratic pressure in India.The state can absorb the message and adjust—or it can harden, punish and deepen the distrust that the protests exposed." I write in Foreign Policy

foreignpolicy.com

India’s Political Atmosphere Has Changed

If Modi responds to the Cockroach protesters with further repression, it could backfire.

143 4

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I write in @thewalrus.ca about the contradictions in Canadian PM Mark Carney's policy towards China, and why it is not sustainable. Also has parallels with his India policy. 👇🏾

011 1

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

"But the bubble eventually burst because Hindutva cannot feed the stomach with flags. It has bred a deep discontent because its economic model inherently favours cronyism while leaving a vast majority of the population to scramble over a few crumbs." www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/youn...

telegraphindia.com

Young guns

By occupying the streets, by demanding administrative accountability, and by forcing the government to look them in the eye, the youth are reclaiming the very definition of popular sovereignty

013 3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

"If the Indian democratic experiment survives this dark era of majoritarian overreach, it will not be because its compromised institutions suddenly rediscovered their spine. It will be because the hopeful, optimistic youth of India decided to stand up and fight back." I write in The Telegraph

162 6

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

India’s inability to build or source a jet engine has turned into a strategic liability for India. It is the bill for 30 years of deferred decisions on engine technology, and India will pay it either in money, in capability or in strategic autonomy. themorningcontext.com/chaos/indias...

themorningcontext.com

India’s jet engine gap turns into a strategic fault line

The country's fighter jet roadmap rests on imported propulsion, leaving its military plans hostage to cost shocks, delays and geopolitics.

000 0

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

The Implosion of Modi’s West Asia Policy: How New Delhi made itself irrelevant in the region’s most consequential crisis. ..easy to dismiss the current Indian quandary as a collection of isolated diplomatic missteps, when it is a systemic failure of Modi’s over-centralised foreign policy apparatus.

caravanmagazine.in

How New Delhi made itself irrelevant in the region’s most consequential crisis

By embedding India’s geopolitical interests so deeply within the Israeli security paradigm and offering tacit diplomatic cover to its destructive war effort, Modi compromised India’s historical standi...

143 4

Reposted by Sushant Singh

Nomi Claire Lazar @nomiclairelazar.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Any democracy worth having is always under construction.

24910 49

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

"India ends up projecting itself to be larger than it is in the Global South and more central than it is in the Indo-Pacific, while the actual record points to a narrowing of influence, a shrinking moral voice, and a nation that has traded strategic seriousness for hollow posturing."

telegraphindia.com

Double trouble

India ends up projecting itself to be larger than it is in the Global South and more central than it is in the Indo-Pacific, while the actual record points to a narrowing of influence

011 1

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Taken together, the Global South and the Indo-Pacific — geopolitical terms that once possessed substantive strategic utility — now expose the same problem in India’s foreign policy. By substituting spectacle for substance, Modi has stripped them of real meaning and reduced them... In The Telegraph

111 1

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

For The Caravan #Baatcheet, a no-holds barred conversation with Vishnu Sharma on the events of West Asia - Iran, Israel, the US and the rest - and what it reveals about the disaster that has been Modi's foreign policy (in Hindi, video) youtu.be/IkyTlkyN5BY?...

youtu.be

America-Iran Deal: इज़राइल के लिए झटका, irrelevant हुआ भारत | The Caravan Baatcheet | Ep 47

YouTube video by The Caravan Magazine

011 1

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

"The US was once India’s most trusted strategic partner, but that trust has eroded.... What if the current disruption is not an aberration linked to a single presidency, but rather a permanent structural shift in US behavior?" I write in Foreign Policy foreignpolicy.com/2026/06/18/i...

foreignpolicy.com

The Iran War Damaged U.S.-India Ties

Diplomatic fractures between the two strategic partners are likely to outlast the conflict.

033 3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

"MAGA immigration politics have eaten away at the foundations of the India-US relationship, and Rubio’s visit revealed that the two nations can’t even agree that a problem exists ― a problem which could change the strategic balance in the Indo-Pacific and leave India adrift in a volatile world."

indiahousefoundation.org

Empty Diplomatic Optics Define Modi’s Damaged Partnership With Trump 2.0

Marco Rubio’s India visit exposed growing strains in India-US ties under Trump 2.0, from immigration and trade disputes to shifting Indo-Pacific priorities.

030 3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

"The decision is an emergency response to administrative failure, but emergencies create precedents. A democracy that requires its armed forces to secure test booklets because it cannot trust its civil administration has traded long-term constitutional health for short-term political firefighting."

themorningcontext.com

NEET and the military shortcut risks long-term damage

The government’s reliance on the armed forces may help it address a credibility crisis, but risks weakening civilian institutions.

010 1

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

'While Trump and Putin held high-stakes strategic deliberations in Beijing, and Pakistan actively negotiated a peace deal in the Gulf, Modi engaged in giving toffees to his Italian counterpart while running away from questions from foreign journalists.' www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/on-t...

telegraphindia.com

On the margins

India is not merely absent from the high table making major international decisions, it has become irrelevant to them. And if you are not at the table, you are on the menu

012 2

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Today’s unfortunate reality is that India is not merely absent from the high table making major international decisions, its absence is not being noted - it means India has become irrelevant to them. And if you are not at the table, you are on the menu. My column in The Telegraph

161 6

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Where Hartosh and I discuss the Bengal elections and take offence with those trying to justify the results by slicing and dicing half-baked data, instead of examining the democratic consequences of holding an election like this. Its consequences are far reaching and highly damaging.

youtu.be

Choking Democracy: Results Don’t Count When The Poll Process Has Been Debased | Long View Ep 8

YouTube video by The Caravan Magazine

031 3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

"Indian mega projects often travel under mixed labels because once the security frame is attached, scrutiny becomes harder. Opposition can be dismissed as naïve, anti-development or even unpatriotic."

032 3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

"A strategic location is not the same thing as a project of any size or form, and certainly not when that is mostly a large commercial project. The two are being confused on purpose to invoke national security and shout down any valid objections." I write in The Morning Context on Great Nicobar

themorningcontext.com

The security fiction behind the Great Nicobar Project

The project leans on national security to justify ecological damage and commercial expansion that far exceed military needs.

153 5

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

"That is why Modi’s triumphalist rhetoric against Pakistan is strategically unhelpful. The conflict last May showed that India can impose some costs, but it also revealed that Pakistan will be reinforced quickly by China in technological, operational and political ways." In @thecaravan.bsky.social

caravanmagazine.in

The Dragon in the Room: Why Pakistan is no longer a standalone threat

Beijing’s real-time military support to Pakistan—like in Operation Sindoor—pose a bigger challenge to India’s security than is being currently acknowledged in New Delhi.

122 2

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

While the calculations of Trump admin have certainly played a role, India’s transition toward this subordinate position to China is largely a result of internal weaknesses that have exacerbated as Modi has prioritised domestic political optics over the gruelling, long-term work of State building.

telegraphindia.com

Change for the worse

The normalisation of ties, acceded to at the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping in 2024, has prioritised a fragile tactical calm over a long-term, strategic design

032 3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

India must decide if it is truly prepared to undertake the immense and painstaking effort required to be a great power, or if it has tacitly accepted the future of a secondary player in an order managed by others. The evidence suggests that, for now, the choice has already been made. My piece

131 3

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

I was on the One Decision podcast, hosted by Former head of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove and international journalist Rosanna Lockwood. It was recorded on Monday, and uploaded today. youtu.be/ZNFAAj26k0E?...

youtu.be

The Iran War Has Unraveled a Decade of Indian Foreign Policy

YouTube video by One Decision

020 2

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

"To conclude, the biggest lesson for India is not simply to buy more weapons. There are many exact weak points an adversary would try to exploit first. Every single lesson of the conflict in West Asia must be anchored to a concrete Indian vulnerability to build the system of systems."

000 0

Sushant Singh @sushantsingh.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

In the Morning Context, I write on the 10 lessons which must be quickly learnt if the Indian military has to fulfil the political goals in the next conflict with Pakistan—or God forbid, China. themorningcontext.com/chaos/ten-mi...

themorningcontext.com

100 1

Reposted by Sushant Singh

Elizabeth N. Saunders @profsaunders.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

🚨🎧NEW episode of @chalkboardpolitics.bsky.social on the surprising global ramifications of the 2025 India-Pakistan conflict, incl. Pakistan’s role in the US-Iran talks. A rich conversation w/ @niloufersiddiqui.bsky.social @sushantsingh.bsky.social & student team. goodauthority.org/news/how-did...

goodauthority.org

How did the 2025 India-Pakistan conflict change global politics? 🎧

Explore the unexpected fallout – and Pakistan’s role in the Iran war ceasefire – in this episode of Chalkboard Politics.

13413 34