India, April 26 -- Remarks by BJP leader Ram Madhav at a Washington event suggesting that India had stopped buying Russian oil, a claim he later described as factually incorrect, have drawn attention to the gap between political articulation and actual trade data.

As per data analysed by The Sunday Guardian, India has not structurally reduced its purchases of Russian crude oil over the past six months. Instead, imports have moved in response to pricing incentives within the limits imposed by sanctions enforcement, logistics and policy shifts, according to data from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, an independent research organisation that tracks global fossil fuel trade and sanctions impact, and corroborating trade report...