So let's return to the Indian Express story,. Over the next two paragraphs it quotes two Western European diplomats but since neither they nor their countries are revealed, we can't be sure if it is true or fictional. (How sub-editors let it pass must be a mystery). Obviously these mysterious diplomats refused to be identified. But one of them did mention the impact it would be on "economic climate."
If it's not a veiled threat, I don't know what it is. If the idea from these well-wishers is that the bogey of "intolerance" and "communalism" would stop foreign investment, they ought not to have worried. We all know how economically messy Europe and European Union (EU) is since 2008. We also know of India's healthy economic forecast by independent international agencies.
The Indian Express story hasn't ended (indeed, it's of such monstrous length spilling over two pages that you wonder if these are mere envoys and unnamed diplomats or not Nostradamus reborn). It reports apology of quotes from Russian, Chinese and African diplomatic sources before returning to Verma again with a gusto.
Verma is now quoted at length on the necessity of freedom at our college campuses which he termed the "laboratories of thought." He then mentions the importance of "upholding minority rights" and rambles on before concluding that "speech is a central tenet we (US and India) hold dear."
There are a lot of times in this lengthy reportage when a reporter ought to have interjected and having failed to do so either ought to have omitted these quotes or supplemented it with his or her own corrective interpretation and analogy. We are not informed on what purpose Verma went to Bihar such was the indecent haste to publish this report. We can only conclude it was "plug"--plain and simple. A cheating of newspaper's paying customers.
What it took decades for these newspapers to build their reputations, they are intent on squandering in a matter of days. They need to take a closer and harder look at their own agenda. The resistance must come from within its premises and people. It's better they laugh and scold each other in private than be open to ridicule and contempt in public.
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