Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Jan 10, 2026

For long years from the 1950s to the early 1980s, India was much respected among countries of the Third World and had a position of near leadership in the non-aligned movements. But those days are long gone, particularly after the collapse of the soviet union. From the early 1990s globalisation integrated India in the world economy in ways unknown in the past and gave it a new prominence in economic terms and as a market. This new emerging India had opened a door, giving it a space on the global stage. It played deftly with an old institutional idiom till 2014. But marketing and lobbying firms came to hold a big role, almost sidelining trained diplomats. With the election of Narendra Modi in May 2014, the persona of the Prime Minister as a supreme leader and his personal informal style were projected as India