U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry weren’t the only notable absentees at Sunday’s unity rally in Paris. India too failed to send a high-level representative to honor the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shootings. In a decidedly tepid show of support to a grieving fellow democracy, New Delhi sent its ambassador.

It is hard to say exactly why India had such a weak presence in Paris. The notorious sluggishness of the foreign office may account for the decision, rather than anything ideological. Either...