INDIA PERSPECTIVE

New Delhi, June 7. India's leading outlets read the new escalation as a data point for the oil industry, not as a humanitarian or ideological drama. NDTV files three updates within hours: "US Iran War Live Updates: Kuwait Responds To Missile, Drone Attacks," "US Strikes Iranian Radar Sites As Tehran Launches Drones Near Hormuz," and a recap. The Times of India offers the most politically textured detail: Bahrain "called on Tehran to immediately halt attacks against its Gulf neighbours" and labels the aggression "blatant" — India relays Arab moral language without endorsing it. Deccan Chronicle stresses the American strategic calculation: the drones were "one-way attack drones" and "a danger to maritime traffic." Swarajya, a right-leaning magazine, articulates the industrial argument: "roughly 20 per cent of global petroleum and liquefied natural gas passes" through Hormuz, and the strait remains a "critical flashpoint" since February. That is precisely India's angle: for New Delhi, the topic is neither the legitimacy of the Iranian retaliation nor the robustness of the American shield, but the price per barrel, the diesel bill for Karnataka truckers, and the inflationary pressure on Modi's economy at a moment of political fragility. No mention is made of the Pakistani mediation that Al Jazeera details — Islamabad cannot be a credible mediator for Delhi. The absence is itself a position. New Delhi watches a war it would rather see end, without having to publicly choose between Tehran and Washington.