A debate had been raging in the Indian establishment on whether PM Modi should boycott the BRICS Summit to show India’s displeasure over China’s growing belligerence. This option, predictably, was being championed by the hardliners. However, the pragmatists felt Modi should not boycott the Summit. Earlier this year, India had boycotted the One-Belt-One-Road Summit in China—a toweringly ambitious initiative close to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s heart, something he is keen on being a success. But India stayed away from the Summit, opposed as it was to the proposed China-Pakistan-Economic Corridor, which is to pass through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, territory that India claims to be under Pakistan’s “illegal occupation”.