Take a look at the
comments to the blog post.
cm
http://o3.indiatimes.com/singhdekhyaal/archive/2005/07/19/183144.aspx?Pending=true
Same event, but two perspectives
Just as the same coin looks completely different depending upon the side you look at it from, seems the present visit of Dr Manmohan Singh to the United States. Whereas on one hand, the Indian press is going gaga on how "seldom one sees foreign flags fluttering in the stiff Washington breeze" and on the "US red carpet for Manmohan," as if it were tucked away in the vaults for years only to be rolled out for this once-in-a-millenium state visit (pardon the exaggeration, though which I have only borrowed from the press), people here in the US don't give a penny about what the Indian chief has to say. Finding this historical visit gleaming across the top headlines of all major Indian papers online, I tried to look for similar shades in the US newspapers. Unfortunately, failing to find any headline even vaguely relevant to this event, I had to employ the search feature to excavate two short stories about the meeting today in the New York Times and the Washington Post. Disappointed, I turned to Google, and typed in the keywords I was confident would bring me substantial non-Indian sponsored coverage of Dr. Singh's visit - "white house, manmohan, bush, india ..." And Lo and Behold! I see the white house website! My falling spirits rejuvinated, I clicked on the link (www.whitehouse.gov), and immediately my pupils dilated - TWO stories covering this visit, and one picture! TWO STORIES - can you beat that! Never mind that the top headline on the site had little to do with this issue ("Press Briefing by Scott McClellan"). With adrenalin gushing through my vessels like the Amazon in flood, I clicked on the link that said - "Play Video." My back riveted to my chair, I devoured each and every word the two heads of states had to say - Bush on how fruitful the discussions were, and Singh rambling on about why India deserves a permanent seat in the UNSC. And right when I had almost convinced myself that I was wrong in believing that this trip meant nothing to the Americans, came the jolt which threw me back towards reality - the Question and Answer round. 4 questions were asked, 2 by American reporters and 2 by the Indian reporters. And whereas the latter, like well behaved professionals, asked two relevant questions to the two leaders respectively, their US counterparts did quite the contrary. Both their questions directed to George Bush were on national issues as closely related to the India-US relations as a football match in the US and the festival of Holi in India (apologies for the absurd analogy, but I was at a loss to find two things quite as unrelated). Imagine Bill Clinton and Vajpayee addressing a conference in Delhi, and a reporter asking the latter about what he feels should be done to improve the Indian cricket team! With 3 questions directed at his counterpart, 2 out of which were about issues he possibly hadn't even heard of, Manmohan Singh would've breathed a sigh of relief when an Indian reporter stood up to give this poor man some respect - "Phew! I'm glad I had planted my man amongst these disrespectful Americans!" Manmohan who???
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