'US won’t even have toilet rolls': India has ‘no cards to play,’ planner warns of China, Russia

India is dangerously unarmed in the global power game, says Chennai-based financial planner D. Muthukrishnan, warning that the country would “come to a standstill” if China pulled the plug on exports and remains utterly reliant on Russia for defense.

In a post on X, Muthukrishnan laid bare India’s geopolitical vulnerabilities, criticizing the country’s overdependence on hostile or unstable foreign powers. “Even many made-in-India products consist of huge Chinese components,” he wrote, suggesting that India's much-touted manufacturing push still leans heavily on Beijing.

He mocked U.S. hesitation in confronting China, saying, “The US would not even have toilet rolls to use if China stops supplying.” But he argued that unlike the U.S., China is “self-reliant and self-sufficient” and could afford to sever ties without blinking. “China wouldn’t care if its commercial relationship with the U.S. breaks,” he said.

Muthukrishnan also pointed to Russia’s endurance under sanctions as a warning and a contrast. “Russia… is not only surviving but also growing,” he noted. For India, the implications are even more severe: the defense partnership with Moscow is irreplaceable. “Even if we stop importing oil from Russia, our dependency on defence is extremely high,” he warned, citing the critical S-400 air defense system used in Operation Sindoor as a Russian-supplied lifeline.

His message was blunt: India has failed to build an independent manufacturing and defense backbone. “We’ve no cards to play,” he said. “We are in a tough position geopolitically.”

“China and Russia can survive even if every country in the world turns against them,” he wrote. “We need to become strong.”