India, Aug. 12 -- On Friday August 8, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signed a joint defence agreement in Mecca. An attack on one is to be treated as an attack on all three, it said. As is to be expected, India's commentariat had its opinions, and almost all of it was about Pakistan.

Turkey did get some airtime but almost entirely as Pakistan's enabler, the supplier of drones, the country we should have nothing to do with. Which is to say that even when a third state entered the analysis, it was filtered through Pakistan. Saudi Arabia found negligible mention, for, that is a country we don't really want to upset for obvious reasons. We know which side of the bread is buttered.

Our analysis did not take on board the fact that Turkey ha...