The thin skinned Indian government lodged a strong protest against the Singaporean PM's comment on criminal charges including rape and murder against our lawmakers during a debate in their Parliament over the nuances of democracy. What got our sarkar's goat was that the Singaporean PM mentioned about Nehru's nation building skills and magnanimity still continuing to inspire world leaders. As usual, our government took umbrage to the facts stated about our MPs/MLAs and also about praise heaped on our tallest statesman whom it denigrates day in and day out; all the problems that India faces today is attributed to Jawaharlal Nehru. A couple of days back, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation had expressed concern about the hijab controversy and persecution of Muslims in India. This was quickly dismissed by the sarkari stooges as interference in our internal affairs. Similarly, was the criticism in the international media about our mishandling of Covid 2.0 attributed to partisanship and motivated comments by anti-Indian forces. We are being noticed by the world for all the wrong reasons. Yet, we remain legends in our own minds. The way things are going, there should be a separate desk for petulance, sharp rejoinders, outright rejection, demarches and issuing summons within the Ministry of External Affairs. Add to that another unit for 'kadi ninda' and showing 'laal ankhein' to the country which cannot be named and we will have everything down pat. Whining, harassing foreign envoys and tweeting ad nauseam about how India is God's gift to the world is being passed off as diplomacy in India. We are well and truly on our way to becoming international pariahs.
Vinay Dwivedi, Benaulim
