When US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders talked about “widespread anti-Muslim mob violence” in Delhi, it had much to do with the international media’s reportage. From 2014, when Narendra Modi took over as PM, to coverage of the recent Delhi riots, the foreign press has gone from cautious optimism to outright portrayal of his regime as one that is turning India into a Hindu nationalist state. The Economist played up “Intolerant India: How Modi is endangering the world’s largest democracy” on a recent cover before the Delhi riots, which most foreign media called a “pogrom”. In its February 26 editorial, The Guardian called it a “Hindu nationalist rampage”, adding that “Modi stoked this fire”. No wonder all this has not gone down well with the government. Author Aatish Taseer had already been stripped of his overseas citizenship of India—less than six months after his Time magazine cover story in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls called Modi “India’s Divider...

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