Workers clean an area at a site of a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine April 28, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump with Russian President Vladimir Putin. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meeting in Jeddah.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he could meet with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, but only after his allies agree on security guarantees for Ukraine to deter future Russian attacks once the fighting stops.

In comments released Thursday, he also warned that both sides were preparing for further fighting. Russia was building up troops on the southern front line and Ukraine was test-launching a new long-range cruise missile, he said.

Russia said Thursday that Ukraine did not appear to be interested in “long-term” peace, accusing Kyiv of seeking security guarantees completely incompatible with Moscow’s demands.

U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to end Russia’s three-and-a-half-year invasion of Ukraine through talks with Mr. Zelenskyy and Mr. Putin.

While he has upended a years-long Western policy of isolating the Russian leader, he has made little tangible progress towards a peace deal.

“We want to have an understanding of the security guarantees architecture within seven to 10 days,” Zelensky said, in comments to reporters released for publication Thursday.

“We need to understand which country will be ready to do what at each specific moment,” he added.

A group of allies led by Britain and France are putting together a military coalition to support the guarantees.

Fresh Russian barrage

Once an outline of the security guarantees is agreed upon, Mr. Trump would like to see a bilateral meeting between Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian leader said.

But any meeting with the Russian leader should he held in a “neutral” European country, he added, ruling out any summit in Moscow.

He also rejected the idea of China playing a role in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security, citing Beijing’s alleged support for Moscow.

Mr. Zelenskyy’s comments came as Russia launched hundreds of drones and missiles against Ukraine overnight — the biggest barrage since mid-July — killing one person in the western city of Lviv and wounding many others.

Russian missiles also targeted an American-owned factory complex in town of Mukachevo in the west of Ukraine, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on social media. That attack wounded 19 people, she added.

President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine Andy Hunder said that the factory was “one of the largest American investments in Ukraine.

“Russia continues to destroy and humiliate U.S. businesses in Ukraine, targeting companies that invest and trade on the US stock markets,” Hunder said on Facebook.

France on Thursday condemned the overnight strikes as showing Moscow’s “lack of will to seriously engage in peace talks”, describing them as the “most massive attack in a month”.

A later shelling of the city of Kherson killed one person and wounded more than a dozen, a local official said.

Russia claims advances

On the front lines, Russia said it had captured the village of Oleksandro-Shultyne in the eastern Donetsk region, the latest in a long string of territorial gains.

The village lies less than eight kilometres (five miles) from Kostiantynivka, a fortified town in the Donetsk region that Russia has been pressing towards on both sides.

In comments to journalists Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of making unrealistic security demands.

Any deployment of European troops to the country would be “absolutely unacceptable”, he said.

Rhetorics of the Ukrainian officials “was directly showing that they are not interested in a sustainable, fair, long-term settlement,” Lavrov added.

Mr. Zelenskyy also announced that Ukraine had tested a long-range cruise missile, known as Flamingo, that can strike targets as far as 3,000 kilometres (1,864 miles) away.

“The missile has undergone successful tests. It is currently our most successful missile,” he told reporters.

Mass production could begin by February, he added.

Since Mr. Trump returned to the White House in January and began pushing for an end to the fighting, Russian forces have continued to slowly but steadily gain ground across the front line.

Zelensky said Russian forces were building up troops along the front in the Zaporizhzhia region, which Moscow claims as its own — along with four other Ukrainian regions.

Trump met Putin in Alaska last Friday, before bringing Zelensky and European leaders to Washington for separate talks on Monday.

Mr. Zelenskyy has said the only way to end the war is a meeting with Mr. Putin, and has said Mr. Trump should be present too.

But Moscow has played down the prospect of a summit between Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelenskyy any time soon, saying it wants to be included in discussions on future security guarantees for Ukraine.

Published – August 21, 2025 09:59 pm IST

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. File
| Photo Credit: AP

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to meet U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance in Germany on Friday (January 14, 2025) with a warning against trusting Russia’s Vladimir Putin, as concerns mount in Kyiv and among its European allies that the Ukraine war will be settled over their heads.

The Munich Security Conference starts days after U.S. President Donald Trump and Putin held watershed talks that have shaken Ukraine and America’s NATO allies almost three years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

Mr. Trump said he had agreed with Mr. Putin to soon start Ukraine peace talks and exchange friendly visits — a sea change after years in which the Russian President was internationally isolated.

As top Trump officials held a series of meetings in Europe on Thursday, Mr. Zelenskyy warned world leaders “against trusting Putin’s claims of readiness to end the war” and said he wanted the United States to agree a “plan to stop Putin” before any negotiations.

Kyiv’s European backers fear Mr. Trump could force Ukraine into a bad peace deal that will leave them facing an emboldened Putin — while paying the lion’s share of costs for post-war security.

Among the European leaders, diplomats and generals in Munich, many hold grave concerns over the deepening chasm between the transatlantic allies and even for the post-World War II international order itself.

The new U.S. administration signalled Ukraine would have to give up territory to Russia and that NATO membership for Kyiv was “impractical”.

European allies were stunned to be bluntly informed that the future task of helping secure Ukraine would fall to them alone, in line with Trump’s “America First” stance and his heightened focus on China as the main strategic adversary.

Timothy Garton Ash, a professor of European studies at Oxford, wrote that America’s “message to Europe was pretty stark on Ukraine — it’s your problem. We will help cut a deal with Russia — but policing that is up to you.

“That is surely a green light for Putin to test that defence in Ukraine, meaning that Ukraine and Europe will hardly be secure as a result of a peace agreed by Trump.”

Meeting NATO partners, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied Trump’s 90-minute phone call with Putin on Wednesday meant a betrayal of Kyiv’s war effort.

EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said Thursday that “any deal behind our backs will not work” and that “appeasement also always fails”.

Dividing the world

Mr. Zelenskyy, despite facing the prospect of having Ukraine’s key demands ignored after years of a gruelling war, has pushed back with moderate language, apparently eager to keep a seat at the table when the big powers strike a deal over his country’s future.

He said it was “not very pleasant” that Trump had called Putin first before speaking to him, while again insisting he wanted to hammer out a “plan to stop Putin” with the United States before any talks happen.

Mr. Zelenskyy was due to meet Vance — who was to attend the Munich conference alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other top US officials — and also to redouble his efforts for more help from Europe to reach a “just peace”.

Mr. Trump said Thursday that “high-level people” from Moscow, Kyiv and Washington would meet in Munich on Friday — but the Ukrainian Presidency said it did not expect to take part in talks with Russian officials and that “for the moment there is nothing on the table”.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected any “dictated peace” and his defence minister, Boris Pistorius, called it “regrettable” that Washington was already making “concessions” to the Kremlin.

The Ukraine war has been Europe’s largest military conflict since World War II, and the dramatic events of this week sparked warnings with ominous historical references.

Kallas’ use of the term “appeasement” had a special resonance as conference host city Munich is where in 1938 Britain, France and Italy agreed that Czechoslovakia must surrender border regions to Nazi Germany.

Mr. Trump in social media posts has hailed the “great history of our nations”, the United States and Russia, recalling that both fought together in World War II.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said that “the Russians are trying to prolong the post-Yalta mentality, with a few people sitting around the table and dividing the world,” referring to the conference in Crimea of the British, Soviet and US leaders at the end of World War II.

Security was tight at the annual meeting in the Bavarian state capital, with police on heightened alert a day after a car-ramming attack injured 30 people, with an Afghan asylum seeker arrested at the scene.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday (February 1, 2025) that excluding his country from talks between the U.S. and Russia about the war in Ukraine would be “very dangerous” and asked for more discussions between Kyiv and Washington to develop a plan for a ceasefire.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Mr. Zelenskyy said Russia does not want to engage in ceasefire talks or to discuss any kind of concessions, which the Kremlin interprets as losing at a time when its troops have the upper hand on the battlefield.

He said U.S. President Donald Trump could bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to the table with the threat of sanctions targeting Russia’s energy and banking system, as well as continued support of the Ukrainian military.

“I think these are the closest and most important steps,” he said in the interview in the Ukrainian capital that lasted for more than an hour.

Mr. Zelenskyy’s remarks followed comments Friday (January 31, 2025) by Mr. Trump, who said American and Russian officials were “already talking” about ending the war. Mr. Trump said his administration has had “very serious” discussions with Russia, but he did not elaborate.

“They may have their own relations, but talking about Ukraine without us — it is dangerous for everyone,” Mr. Zelenskyy said.

He said his team has been in contact with the Trump administration, but those discussions are at a “general level,” and he believes in-person meetings will take place soon to develop more detailed agreements.

“We need to work more on this,” he said, adding that Mr. Trump understandably appeared to be focused on domestic issues in the first weeks after his inauguration.

The nearly three-year war in Ukraine is at a crossroads. Mr. Trump promised to end the fighting within six months of taking office, but the two sides are far apart, and it is unclear how a ceasefire deal would take shape. Meanwhile, Russia continues to make slow but steady gains along the front, and Ukrainian forces are enduring severe manpower shortages.

Most Ukrainians want a pause in fighting to rebuild their lives. The country faces near-daily Russian attacks on homes, and strikes on power systems have plunged entire cities into darkness.

Millions of Ukrainians have been displaced, unable to return to their homes after vast tracts of the country’s east have been reduced to rubble. Nearly a fifth of Ukraine is now occupied by Russia. In those areas, Moscow-appointed authorities are swiftly erasing any hint of Ukrainian identity.

With Mr. Trump back in the White House, Ukraine’s relationship with the U.S., its largest and most important ally, is also at a tipping point.

In an initial phone call with Mr. Trump during the presidential campaign, Mr. Zelenskyy said, the two agreed that if Mr. Trump won, they would meet to discuss the steps needed to end the war. But a planned visit by Mr. Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, was postponed “for legal reasons” Mr. Zelenskyy said. That was followed by a sudden foreign aid freeze that effectively caused Ukrainian organizations to halt projects.

“I believe that, first and foremost, we (must) hold a meeting with him, and that is important. And that is, by the way, something that everyone in Europe wants,” Mr. Zelenskyy said, referring to “a common vision of a quick end to the war.”

After the conversation with Mr. Trump, “we should move on to some kind of format of conversation with Russians. And I would like to see the United States of America, Ukraine and the Russians at the negotiating table. … And, to be honest, a European Union voice should also be there. I think it would be fair, effective. But how will it turn out? I don’t know.”

Mr. Zelenskyy cautioned against allowing Mr. Putin to take “control” over the war, an apparent reference to Russia’s repeated threats of escalation during President Joe Biden’s administration.

Without security guarantees from Ukraine’s allies, Mr. Zelenskyy said, any deal struck with Russia would only serve as a precursor to future aggression. Membership in the NATO alliance, a longstanding wish for Kyiv that Moscow has categorically rejected, is still Mr. Zelenskyy’s top choice.

NATO membership is the “cheapest” option for Ukraine’s allies, and it would also strengthen Mr. Trump geopolitically, Mr. Zelenskyy argued.

“I really believe that these are the cheapest security guarantees that Ukraine can get, the cheapest for everyone,” he said.

“It will be a signal that it is not for Russia to decide who should be in NATO and who should not, but for the United States of America to decide. I think this is a great victory for Mr. Trump,” he said, evidently appealing to the President’s penchant for winners and business deals.

In addition, Mr. Zelenskyy said, Ukraine’s 800,000-strong army would be a bonus to the alliance, especially if Mr. Trump seeks to bring home U.S. troops who are stationed overseas.

Other security guarantee proposals should be backed up by sufficient weapons from the U.S. and Europe, and support for Kyiv to develop its own defense industry, he said.

Mr. Zelenskyy also said a French proposal to put European forces in Ukraine to act as a deterrent against Russian aggression is taking shape, but he expressed scepticism, saying many questions remained about the command-and-control structure and the number of troops and their positions. The issue was raised by French President Emmanuel Macron and with Mr. Trump, he said.

“I said in the presence of the two leaders that we are interested in this as a part of the security guarantee, but not as the only guarantee of safety,” he said. “That’s not enough.”

He added: “Imagine, there is a contingent. The question is who is in charge? Who is the main one? What will they do if there are Russian strikes? Missiles, disembarkation, attack from the sea, crossing of the land borderline, offensive. What will they do? What are their mandates?”

Asked if he put those questions directly to Mr. Macron, he smiled and said: “We are still in the process of this dialogue.”

Following a statement by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the war has set Ukraine back by 100 years, Mr. Zelenskyy urged Mr. Rubio to visit Ukraine.

Mr. Rubio “needs to come to Ukraine, first of all, to see what Russia has done,” the Ukrainian President said. “But also to see what the Ukrainian people did, what they were able to do for the security of Ukraine and the world, as I said, and just talk to these people.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (L) speaks as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) looks on during a UN Security Council meeting on the conflict between Ukraine and Russia at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on September 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday (September 24, 2024) at the United Nations that Russia can only be forced into a peace settlement, as he vowed not to negotiate on Moscow’s terms to end the war.

Addressing a special UN Security Council session attended by a representative of Russia, Mr. Zelenskyy also joined the United States in pressuring Iran and North Korea for alleged military support to Russia.

Zelenskyy, on a trip in which he is presenting his “victory plan” for Ukraine, questioned the sincerity of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has suggested freezing lines of control.

“We know some in the world want to talk to Mr. Putin,” Mr. Zelenskyy said, “to possibly hear from him that he’s upset because we are exercising our right to defend our people.”

Mr. Zelenskyy, clad in his trademark military fatigues, called such views “insanity.”

“Russia can only be forced into peace, and that is exactly what’s needed— forcing Russia into peace,” he said.

Mr. Zelenskyy said that any end to Russia’s two-year-old invasion has to be based on the UN Charter, which enshrines sovereignty by member states.

“One day in this hall, it will surely be said that Russia’s war against Ukraine has ended— not paused, not forgotten, truly ended,” Mr. Zelenskyy said.

“This will happen not because someone got tired of the war, not because someone traded something with Mr. Putin. Russia’s war against Ukraine will end because the UN Charter will work.”

Mr. Zelenskyy will on Thursday meet at the White House with President Joe Biden, who in an address to the United Nations urged international support for Ukraine until victory.

Mr. Zelenskyy’s political positioning comes weeks ahead of a U.S. election in which Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has described billions of dollars of US aid to Ukraine as wasteful and voiced admiration for Putin.

China calls for peace push

Mr. Zelenskyy again promised a second “peace summit” and said he was inviting both China and India, key powers that have refused to go along with Western sanctions on Ukraine.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, addressing the Security Council, welcomed what he described as rising pressure for diplomacy.

“Dialogue and negotiation are the only viable way to settle the Ukraine crisis. If day after day, peace talks cannot be launched, then misjudgment and miscalculation would build, which leads to even greater crisis,” he said.

He insisted China was devoted to peace, saying: “China is not a creator of the Ukraine crisis, nor are we a party to it.”

But he spoke ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who again charged that China has been fueling Russia’s military build-up through the export of items nominally for civilian use including advanced electronics and machine tools.

Mr. Blinken rejected suggestions that his criticism was hypocritical when the United States is arming Ukraine.

“There is a profound difference. Russia is the aggressor. Ukraine is the victim,” Mr. Blinken said.

He called for the United Nations to act against both North Korea, which has ramped up military supplies to Russia, and Iran, recently accused by US intelligence of shipping short-range missiles to Russia.

“Support from Tehran and Pyongyang is helping Putin inflict carnage, suffering and ruin on innocent Ukrainian men, women, children,” Mr. Blinken said.

Mr. Zelenskyy said of the two countries: “Russia has no legitimate reason— none at all— for making Iran and North Korea de facto accomplices in its criminal war in Europe, with their weapons killing us, killing Ukrainians.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, a self-styled moderate in the cleric-run state, on Monday denied Tehran has sent weapons and criticized Moscow for its “aggression.”

PM Narendra Modi with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy
| Photo Credit: X/@narendramodi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and reiterated India’s commitment to an early resolution of the conflict in Ukraine and the restoration of peace and stability in the region.

Mr. Modi, who is in New York on the last leg of his three-day visit to the U.S., met Mr. Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the UN’s landmark Summit of the Future on Monday (September 23, 2024).

This was the third meeting between the two leaders in about three months. They last met in the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv on August 23 during the Prime Minister’s visit to the country. In June, Mr. Modi held talks with Mr. Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy’s Apulia.

“Met President @ZelenskyyUa in New York. We are committed to implementing the outcomes of my visit to Ukraine last month to strengthen bilateral relations. Reiterated India’s support for early resolution of the conflict in Ukraine and restoration of peace and stability,” Mr. Modi said in a post on X.

Mr. Modi reiterated “India’s clear, consistent and constructive approach in favour of a peaceful resolution of the conflict through diplomacy and dialogue as well as engagement between all stakeholders,” according to the press release.

The Prime Minister also conveyed that India remains open to providing “all support within its means to facilitate a lasting and peaceful resolution of the conflict”.

“We are actively developing our relations and working together to strengthen cooperation across various fields. The main focus of our conversation was on enhancing our interaction on international platforms, particularly at the UN and G20, as well as implementing the Peace Formula and preparing for the second Peace Summit. We had a substantive discussion on the available opportunities,” Mr. Zelenskyy said on X.

“I am grateful for the clear support of our sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he added.

During the meeting, Mr. Zelenskyy appreciated India’s attention to the conflict in Ukraine and thanked the Prime Minister for his efforts in finding a way out of it, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said during a special briefing here.

“PM @narendramodi held talks with President @ZelenskyyUa of Ukraine in New York. The leaders took stock of the bilateral ties between both countries. The PM reaffirmed India’s commitment to promoting a peaceful resolution to the conflict, emphasising the importance of dialogue and diplomacy as the way forward,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a post on X.

The meeting “gave an opportunity to take stock again of the recent developments,” Mr. Misri said, adding that both sides also appreciated the positive momentum on a lot of issues in the bilateral relationship and agreed to stay in close touch.

Responding to a question, Mr. Misri also said the meeting was requested by the Ukrainian side.

“PM @narendramodi met President @ZelenskyyUa of Ukraine, today on the sidelines of UNGA in New York. The leaders exchanged views on bilateral ties. They also discussed the situation in Ukraine. PM reiterated India’s willingness to play a constructive role in the quest for a peaceful resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy,” the official account of the MEA said in a post on X.

Mr. Modi’s visit last month was the first-ever visit to Ukraine by an Indian Prime Minister since it became independent over three decades back.

Earlier, Mr. Modi addressed the UN’s landmark Summit of the Future held against the backdrop of raging global conflicts, including the Israel-Hamas war and the Ukraine crisis.

He arrived in New York on Saturday (September 21, 2024) after attending the Quad Leaders’ Summit in Wilmington, Delaware, where he also had bilateral discussions with U.S. President Joe Biden.

The Russia-Ukraine war started exactly two years ago. The very next day, on February 25, 2022, India abstained from voting on a draft resolution in the United Nations Security Council. In the course of the ongoing war, New Delhi has been abstaining from taking clear sides, much to the chagrin of establishments in both the European Union and the United States. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Ukraine, after a much-publicised visit to Moscow in July, in maintaining with India’s stated position of strategic neutrality, questions are being asked in global capitals about India’s motivations. This is the first time an Indian prime minister has visited an independent Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union. 

There have been enough domestic discussions on India’s purported role in world peace and other grand enterprise. Let’s bring realism back into the game now.

Decoupling From West Is Not An Option

Domestic chatter aside, what the Western world – the US, EU, UK nexus – thinks about India’s stand on the Russia-Ukraine conflict does, indeed, matter to India. No matter what the virulently nationalist ecosystem clamours for, decoupling from the West is not an option for India. It is not merely about diplomatic grandstanding. Since 2014, PM Modi has been making diplomatic and cultural gestures to bolster India-EU relations. There have been increased levels of engagement to secure crucial strategic and economic partnerships between India and the EU member states. While India’s relationship with Ukraine may not have been headline-making historically, its implications have not been any less significant. That explains why India has consistently decried Russian aggression against Ukraine.

With his visit to Kyiv, PM Modi may be revealing India’s growing transactions with the EU member states for its defence and strategic needs. After all, the Russian manpower and machines have put up a dismal performance in the current theatre. It’s high time Indian generals stopped defending the Russian infrastructure just because they, too, are dependent on it and must swear by its fierceness. India has options for its defence and modernisation needs and must use them. After all, what use are partnerships like the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) that the EU set up with India in April 2022?

Exports From Russia Are Dwindling

It needs to be brought back into the picture that India’s arms procurement from Russia saw a significant drop in the aftermath of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. The trend has been continuing, and as per the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s latest reports, Russian exports to India have sharply declined from 76% in 2009–2013 to 36% in 2019-2024. While India remains the Russian arms industry’s biggest market, it’s also shopping from elsewhere, and that cart is getting bigger. A war-stressed Moscow is unlikely to meet New Delhi’s growing defence needs owing to the latter’s neighbourhood concerns.  

Au contraire, other countries are pushing their catalogues for New Delhi to browse. The French are coming hot and sexy with their Rafael jets and a “defence industrial roadmap” to jointly design and develop mechanical infrastructure. India and France have joined hands in building submarines, combat aircraft engines, and multi-role helicopters. Ukraine, accounting for 11% of India’s total defence imports, too, is an important partner. India is also deepening defence and security ties with countries like South Korea, South Africa and Poland. It is no coincidence that PM Modi made a pit stop in Poland before heading to Ukraine.

A Wise Move By India

By maintaining its stance of strategic neutrality, India is securing self-interest-driven allies in Europe and Asia without the overlordship of the US. It is a wise move on India’s part in keeping with the ever-looming shadow of China in the neighbourhood.  The US has exhibited reluctance to share crucial defence technology with India despite promises and agreements, like the one between General Electric and Indian partners for technology to power the new fleet of fighter jets. India knows better than to rely on the US, a country that holds its military-industrial complex dearer than any ideological principle. 

It is clear that India—while being on “the side of peace”—is keeping its national interests above everything else. Mykhailo Podolyak, a presidential adviser in Ukraine, acknowledges that India “really has a certain influence” over Russia. It is this reputation that India aims to, ought to capitalise on in its attempt to emerge as a dependable global negotiator. Only those who have power can negotiate, the rest only nudge. 

The timing for Modi’s Ukraine visit is almost perfect. India is not expected to use a magic wand to bring Moscow and Kyiv to the negotiating table. The military situation remains hot. Even minor dialling down of fighting, if at all, will be enough for India’s influence optics. No significant developments in the region can be expected till the US elects its next president. Till the US gets its house in order and views its NATO obligations afresh, the window is open for India to pedal hard towards its strategic goals—choosing realism over idealism and empty talk. 

(Nishtha Gautam is a Delhi-based author and academic.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author