Easy to explain. HCQ as treatment is questionable. Always was. Even the Chinese retracted their recommendation in End of February. But it is still recommended as prevention, and there is a Indian study confirming its suitability as prevention. That's how it always worked. India is also the sole manufacturer of it, for their malaria problem. It's still in widespread use there.

Europeans were extra stupid to try it as treatment. If you read the early original Chinese reports they always mentioned that it worked as prevention, Lupus patients had an advantage.

And those two disliked presidents always promoted its usage as prevention, not treatment. But reading is apparently a rare skill.

I suspect this was people thinking “chloroquine is a malaria drug and India has malaria, therefore it’s used in India”. Which sounds vaguely convincing at first glance, but malaria in India has been immune for decades.

Don't even get me started on the people hoarding tonic water because it has quinine in it