India has been a staunch leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, naturally so considering she was one of the founding members of the Bandung Conference.

However, it seems today, the Indian government has abandoned that traditional posture and moved with deliberate steps over to the side of the US.

Tempted by the American offer of advanced military arms and nuclear technology, but more importantly, seduced by the US treatment of her as an equal big power nation, New Delhi has finally succumbed to the materialistic lures and its own hubristic aspiration.

It has voted together with the US to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council for nuclear proliferation violations. Does Iran deserve to be voted against? Perhaps.

But of all nations on planet Earth, no one had truly expected India to do that, especially more so after her promise to Tehran.

The newly-revealed Indian re-positioning of herself to be alongside her new found friend, the US, spells a new global politico-strategic re-alignment that will worry its old comrade and once-closest friend, Russia, and its neighbour China. Perhaps even Pakistan's leaders may be wiping their sweating brows in Islamabad.

Coincidentally, all three nations had abstained from the voting against Iran's alleged nuclear misdemeanour.

Why did India commit the volte-face? While the offer of advanced military weapons was certainly tempting, the Americans pressed the right Indian button by offering nuclear technology hitherto denied to all save the most trusted allies, and lavishing extraordinary attention and special treatment which the Indians have longed desired for. It was not so much the American technology per se but the 'trust' and 'treatment' accorded to India.

The Indians have always watched with chagrin as the world treated China with semi-superpower status while dismissing her as a third-rate nation. She wanted recognition of the same global status that it had enviously seen China enjoy.

The American wooing of India, with a 'bouquet' of apparent trust and a chocolate box labelled 'Pre-eminent 1st World', has been masterful. It has been the right caress to stroke India's long deprived hubris, finally captivating the Indian political heart.

Its former prime minister, the late Jawaharlal Nehru was the global political giant who provided the 10 principles of the Non-Aligned Movement. What will his poor departed soul say of this new India?