NEW DELHI, March 17 -- On the ninth day of the Russia-Ukraine war, I wrote a column in this magazine criticising the Government of India's neutrality, which only benefited the aggressor. I argued that the government should be proactive and use its influence on Russia to end the aggression. I mentioned that Russia was more dependent on India than vice versa.

What prompted me to write the column was the stance taken by some former Indian ambassadors, who claimed that Russia would capture Ukraine and install a puppet regime within a matter of days. They emphasised the massive scale of Russian forces sent to seize Kyiv and portrayed Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a "drug addict and comedian" who could not stand up to the mighty Vlad...