Just when I thought I was out... they pulled me back in. Or, as they say, it is in the nature of bizarre things that you cannot look away. When I wrote last week about Modi's black box (newsflash: it is getting blacker), I thought this week I would move on to better things. But not a chance. Things got more bizarre and fascinating in India.

Last week, the assumption was that given India's massive bureaucracy and diplomatic muscle, the country would be saved by the bell and somehow manage to dodge the twenty-five per cent additional tariffs as a penalty for buying, refining and reselling embargoed Russian oil. Alas, that was not to be. Caught in the eddies of misfortune, the country walked right into it. When it came, the defence was weak sauce.

They couldn't make up their mind whether to

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