MUMBAI (Kashmir English): The Indian newspaper The Hindu declared 2025 as a year of “dissipating promises” due to the failure to meet expectations regarding the country’s foreign policy.
The end of 2025 came as a year of failures and defeats in Indian foreign policy, where India faced diplomatic humiliation at the global level, as per the article.
In India, the expectations attached to the BJP’s puppet Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not become reality.
According to the newspaper, symbolic diplomacy, personal relationships, and narrative creation could not be a substitute for real economic, military, and diplomatic power.
According to the newspaper The Hindu, India made promises not only to itself but also to its partners that it did not have the influence and strength to implement.
On relations with the US, the newspaper wrote that 2025 proved to be the most difficult year of this century for India, where 25 percent tariffs, additional restrictions on Russian oil, and restrictions on H-1B visas made it clear that India’s partnership with Washington is conditional and self-serving.
According to the article, India has been reduced to a limited role in the US National Security Strategy 2025 compared to 2017.
Similarly, despite all the high-level meetings with China and Russia, no concrete security progress could be made on the Line of Control, while investment barriers also remained, and India was limited to a mere symbolic presence.
In the energy sector, the publication clarified that as a result of US pressure, India had to back down on its position on the issue of Russian oil.
The newspaper called the Pahalgam false flag operation a serious security failure and admitted that Indian military operations could not receive global support at the diplomatic level after the Pahalgam attack.
The silence on the losses of aircraft after the Indian operation also damaged India’s reputation.
Similarly, the announcement of the Saudi-Pakistan bilateral defense agreement proved to be an additional blow to India.
According to The Hindu, Indian analysts are now considering Pakistan’s leadership as “tough and capable of organizing, while the newspaper also admitted that India-Bangladesh relations have reached their most tense level ever.
Moreover, the newspaper warned that India is moving away from the narrative of “Vishu Guru” and towards “Vishu Victim,” and blaming others is becoming the biggest obstacle to reform and realistic policy-making.
According to observers, the newspaper’s admission that some countries supported Pakistan’s military actions openly exposes India’s diplomatic failure, and the recognition of the capabilities of the Pakistani leadership negates the Indian claim that Pakistan is weak or isolated on the global level.
Experts further say that India, which has expressed concern over the atrocities on minorities in Bangladesh, must also condemn and prevent attacks on minorities in its own country.
