India once defied pressure to buy Russian oil. So why did it need a US waiver now?

When US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced “a temporary 30-day waiver” allowing Indian refiners to purchase Russian crude cargoes “already stranded at sea”, it was framed as a short-term step to keep global oil markets stable amid disruptions in the Gulf in the wake of the US-Israel war on Iran.
But in New Delhi’s policy circles, and in the Opposition, the optics were impossible to ignore.