US President Donald Trump is dumb, lacking in foresight, and disdainful of expert opinion; no wonder he believed in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan of decapitating Iran’s leadership, sponsoring a street uprising (like the December 28 Mossad-sponsored protest that led to 3,000 Iranian deaths), and facilitating a Kurdish uprising. World opinion is now uniform that Trump has a low IQ for believing the Iran war would unfold as per Netanyahu’s plan. Incidentally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also believed it.

Former prime ministerial spokesperson Sanjaya Baru brought into the open what was whispered in Delhi: that Modi, on his visit to Tel Aviv two days before the US-Israeli war on Iran was launched, was briefed on the plan and was assured that regime change would occur within four days. Hence, according to Baru, India was silent on the murder of 168 schoolgirls, all daughters of military officials, and on the assassination of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. India waited for a new regime to take charge. Two months later, the Iranians stand strong.

One might wonder why Modi and his National Security Advisor Ajit Doval have such blind faith in Netanyahu, but that would be as productive as wondering why Modi allow Trump to belittle India, calling it a hellhole, while rushing to tweet how “relieved” he was that the staged assassination attempt on Trump was unsuccessful (how could it have been successful if the shooter never got beyond the security check-point?). Various commentators have suggested that India firmly keeps its eye on the long trajectory of aligning with the Israel-US axis, ignoring the pinpricks from the mercurial Trump; or that it is because the US blackmails Modi by threatening to proceed with legal action against crony capitalist Gautam Adani. But what is it about Israel that really gets Modi’s juices flowing?

It must be something deeper that the defense cooperation between Israel and India. Deeper than the Israeli missiles that India used during Operation Sindoor, which were far more effective that the French fighter aircraft, a foreshadowing of how Iran would conduct its 2026 missile defense against Israel and American aerial strikes; and deeper than the purchase of Israeli surveillance technology to set up and strengthen the police state in India.

We have gone out of our way to alienate traditional allies to pledge alliance to the US-Israeli alliance—which is, ironically, increasingly unpopular among US voters if not yet in the US political class. Iran was our old civilisational friend with whom our Shias, of which there are 25-30 million, had a deep and strong connection; we were building a port with them; and Iran had politically supported India during its weakest moments, such as in 1994, when it dashed a Western anti-India resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission at Geneva. Iran has long been a friend, indeed.

Worse, however, has been India’s behavior towards the BRICS grouping, of which India was a founding member in the 2000s. India is also currently the rotating head of BRICS. Comprising also China and Russia, and lately Iran (as well as the United Arab Emirates, an Israeli lackey that this week exited OPEC), you could say that BRICS comprises a majority of the superpowers (excepting only the US, a “hyperpower” as the French put it in 1999), and had a chance of replacing the UN as the globe’s premier panchayat. However, India has done as much as possible to subvert BRICS.

This was embarrassingly obvious when BRICS tried to move towards de-dollarisation. This has happened in stages, from 2013, when China and Brazil, and China and Russia, agreed to allow trade on local currency swaps. In 2023, Brazil proposed a common BRICS currency, with proposals for payment systems and mechanisms; in the BRICS summit at Rio in 2025, this proposal was endorsed.

India, however, said that replacing the dollar was not part of its financial agenda. India sees currency as a tool, not a geopolitical chess move. Others believed India’s stand was dictated by the US, though India has practical reasons for not wanting de-dollarisation: our rupee is woefully weak. Nobody wants to be left holding unspent rupees. Plus, while bilateral currency swaps might work where financial integration is smoother, the BRICS as a whole is a financial tangle.

Isolated stand

Despite India’s practical objections, other countries saying that India was acting at the USA’s behest was an allegation that stuck. And it got worse this week when the BRICS+ (a grouping including newly expanded members) had a meeting in New Delhi of deputy foreign ministers and special envoys that ended, unprecedentedly, without a joint communiqué. Even the worst international meetings have managed to issue a bland communiqué.

The bone of contention was the language on Israel-Gaza. We all know how Israel has methodically murdered 80,000 Palestinians, especially children (what is with these monsters and their lack of empathy for children?) and that the specific purpose was the expand the boundaries of Israel. BRICS wanted to criticise Israeli military action in Gaza and Lebanon, and give its explicit support to a Palestinian State, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

India, however, would not agree, even though it has historically recognised East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestine. India wanted to soften the language on Israel. This was rejected by the other 10 nations. India was isolated, just to please Israel.

Why is Modi so beholden to Netanyahu? Is it because of their shared hatred of Muslims? Is it because Modi is only focused on one thing: the destruction of Pakistan, with Israeli help, and its absorption into the Akhand Bharat project? Sadly, this single-minded focus is costing the Indian economy and our youth’s future. Modi’s own former finance secretary, Subhash Chandra Garg, said India won’t reach $5 trillion even by 2029, and by then the country would have fallen to the world’s fifth highest GDP (from third highest). But one can expect no better from a leader in front of whom Trump appears to be a genius and a visionary.

Aditya Sinha is a writer living on the outskirts of Delhi.

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