India may be pushed back against China once again. This, in essence, is the line many media commentaries have been taking. It is this backdrop that makes US President Barack Obama's visit as the chief guest at India's Republic Day parade on Jan 26 interesting. His visit follows that of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who visited India last year in same capacity and whose second visit is expected in the near future.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's hyperactive foreign policy has triggered speculation of all kinds. Modi has been warming up to his decades-long detractor, the United States - reflected in the back-to-back visits of American secretaries of commerce, defense and state and more than a dozen other senior officials, making India the largest buyer of American weapons and the US the largest trading partner of India. US allies have taken this as a signal to indulge India's new leadership.

Or, are the US allies leading India up the garden path in New Delhi. The fact that Japan and India both have territorial disputes with China is often seen as the reason for the bonhomie between the second- and third-largest economies in Asia. Indeed, Japan was the only developed country not to shun Modi when he, as chief minister of the province of Gujarat, was accused of violating human rights.