The bonhomie with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Knesset speech that witnessed a rare bout of bipartisanship in Israel, and India’s emphatic solidarity with the Oct 7 victims of terrorism was clear proof that New Delhi had changed sides
However, the quantum of outrage over his short visit to Israel and its supposedly contagious impact on India’s foreign policy went beyond the danger mark of the political Richter scale. The usual suspects did, quite predictably, protest too much. But to get the grande dame of the ancient regime to write an op-ed in her name was unusual. It suggested that the disquiet over Modi’s bid to create a new normal was sufficient to warrant a more vigorous response than Priyanka Gandhi’s symbolic photo-op with a Palestine tote bag.