5 min readMar 8, 2026 06:21 AM IST First published on: Mar 8, 2026 at 06:21 AM ISTThis is not a column that discusses international affairs. In it, you will have mostly read commentary about domestic issues. If this week I am going to make an exception and talk about an international event, it is because I have rarely seen an international event in which so many Indians have shown so much interest as the attack on Iran by the United States and Israel. The consequences of this war and its real objectives remain murky. What is clear is that the Ayatollah, who ruled Iran with diabolical despotism for nearly four decades, is dead.When news came of the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, my first reaction was to celebrate. The death of all tyrants should be celebrated. If only because for a few blissful moments a heaviness seems to lift from the world. So, in cities across the world, Iranians celebrated the death of a man who destroyed the political and economic foundation of their country. Many of those who celebrated have been forced to leave their homeland as political refugees. Many have seen friends and family members tortured to death or executed by the Ayatollah’s revolutionary guards. Women’s voices were heard loudest in support of sisters and friends blinded or killed for the ‘sin’ of showing a few strands of hair. So why is it that Indian Muslims reacted so differently?AdvertisementIn Lucknow and Srinagar, Shia Muslims came out in the streets to beat their breasts, shout anti-American slogans and mourn the ‘martyrdom’ of a man they said was a great religious leader. Do Indian Muslims not have enough Indian problems to make them protest? Why is it always something that has happened in a distant country that brings them into the streets? They had the full support of leftist leaders, liberals and political parties. This lot has a very selective way of looking at tyranny. Their judgement depends on who the tyrant is. Personally, I have a distaste for religious leaders and despots in general, but in my view, when it comes to sheer evil, few would win a contest against the late Ayatollah.After rage against his rule erupted in January, he unleashed the might of his theocratic and military empire upon his own people. Young men and women, some barely out of their teens, were gunned down in public squares. Women were thrown into jail and, according to unconfirmed reports, many were raped.There is evidence from doctors that injured people were dragged out of hospital beds and shot. Thousands of protesters were killed in this crackdown. The exact numbers are hard to confirm. What have appeared on social media are images of mass graves and piles of body bags through which relatives of the dead wandered to find their loved ones. For me, this is enough to believe that the world is a better place without this theocratic tyrant in it.AdvertisementIt worries me that there are so many Indians, Muslim and Hindu, who think that the killing of the Ayatollah was wrong. In private conversations and on social media, I have spent most of last week discussing the dead despot with various people. I have found it hard to agree with the arguments they put forth. Some said it was a breach of the rules of international engagement to kill the leader of a sovereign state. Even one who broke all the rules himself when he set up terrorist armies like Hamas and Hezbollah? Really?you may likeOthers said that they feared that the United States and Israel have done something that will not change Iran for the better but change the world for the worse. They point out that despotism and tyranny in Iran are institutionalised and that below the Supreme Leader exist layers and layers of revolutionary guards, morality policemen and military men who support the policies that Iran has followed since the Islamic revolution nearly 50 years ago. The arguments that I found persuasive came from those who pointed out that regime change is unlikely when the roots of tyranny run so deep. This could well be true, and if things go wrong from here onwards, then the United States will be held accountable.As I have said here more than once, most Indians care little about what happens in other countries. But the attack on Iran and Iran’s violent response have so gripped the Indian imagination that I have gone nowhere last week without being accosted by someone who wants to know what I think about the ‘Iran war’.There is real trepidation about what will happen next. Many believe that this Middle Eastern war could lead to a much wider one and that India will inevitably be drawn into it. If we are, then it is my fervent hope that we pick the team that is led by the United States and Israel, because this is the team with democracies in it. The other team, led by China and Russia, is the one that our leftist intellectuals and politicians would like us to choose, because for reasons I do not understand, lefties and jihadis are more comfortable with despots and tyrants. One way or another, we need to accept that the world has changed dramatically since the death of the Ayatollah, and the immediate future looks bleak and more than a little scary.