For US, India is both an ally and adversary

What explains Washington’s blow hot, blow cold relationship with India? It’s not a new phenomenon under Donald Trump’s erratic presidency. The US has played fast and loose with India since Independence in 1947. Successive US presidents have used Pakistan and economic sanctions to keep India off-balance. Washington made Pakistan a non-NATO ally, sold it lethal weaponry including F-16 fighter jets, and cosied up with Pakistan’s military dictators. Trump does this openly. His predecessors did it behind closed doors. The US was never comfortable with India’s leading role in the non-aligned movement (NAM) along with former Yugoslavia and Egypt. India’s close…