Bracketed with China.

"This week, FM Nirmala Sitharaman defended the provisions of the new income tax bill, which allows any authorized officer to 'break open the lock of any door, box, locker, safe, almirah, or other receptacle...or gain access by overriding the access code to any said computer system or virtual digital space, where the access code thereof is not available." ET. There seems to be no safeguard for citizens, such as obtaining a warrant from a judge after showing credible evidence for any suspicion of wrongdoing or compensation for damage to property. The law makes officials completely unaccountable. "The police force, tasked with maintaining order and protecting citizens, has become a source of fear" because of "Custodial torture, third-degree interrogation methods and custodial deaths" as "The absence of accountability allows police officers to abuse their authority, often victimizing the very people they are meant to protect," wrote Karti P Chidambaram. A government, drunk with unlimited power over citizens, is unable to accept any objection to its actions from other countries. "The ministry of external affairs...strongly refuted a report published by the New York Times" which "alleged that between 2023 and 2024, a British aerospace firm, HR Smith Group, shipped restricted technology to HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd), which was later linked to transactions involving Russia's state-owned arms agency Rosoboronexport." TOI. "The government...hit out at US Commission on Religious Freedom (USCIRF) for raising concerns in its annual report about India's treatment of minorities and seeking sanctions against RAW for allegedly plotting to kill Sikh separatists.  TOI. "A report by the United States intelligence community has identified India and China as 'state actors' often 'directly or indirectly' enabling 'non-state actors' as sources of precursors and equipment for drug traffickers." DH. The US is accusing arms of the Indian State of facilitating smuggling of precursors of fentanyl to the US. India reacted furiously by expelling Canadian diplomats after former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly accused Indian agents of assassinating Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada. BBC. Trudeau has resigned and Mark Carney is the new prime minister of Canada. AP. And yet, "India is likely to interfere in the Canadian general election on April 28 the country's spy service said." ET. Canada's Liberal Party has revoked Indian-origin Chandra Arya's bid to run for the party leadership and the nomination in his own Ottawa Nepean constituency over his alleged ties to the Indian government." HT. India is being bracketed with China, not for creating wealth or being a manufacturing behemoth, but as a delinquent state engaged in smuggling drugs, murdering citizens of other countries and oppressing minorities. A nation that brutalizes its own citizens with complete impunity becomes deluded in the width of its own power. Other nations will react. With anger. And contempt.