Nearly two decades ago, India began buying over $20 billion worth of defence hardware from the US— transport aircraft, helicopters and naval patrol aircraft. These sales came post the exuberance of the 2008 India-US nuclear deal which buried decades of mutual suspicion.A senior bureaucrat in the Ministry of Defence reminded me of a South Block caveat— US helicopters, transport aircraft, yes, but no US fighter jets. “Because the US will never let India fight the wars it wants to fight.”advertisementRead Full StoryArms sales are tools of geopolitical leverage even more so in the case of the US— Washington DC is...