India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s speech at the UN General Assembly in September 2017 has received widespread appreciation – for the clarity of thought and message. She has called upon the world leaders to not distinguish between evil and wondered if the world cannot fight against the common enemy of terrorism in one voice, then what exactly is the purpose of war on terror? She had also given a stinging reality check to Pakistan – whilst India progressed by producing engineers and doctors, Pakistan produced terrorists; whilst India established IITs, IIMs, AIIMS etc, Pakistan established LeT, JuD etc; whilst India is fighting poverty, Pakistan is busy fighting India!

Even before Pakistan could react to this stinging rebuttal, sections of the English media in India started to react. First of the block was Rajdeep Sardesai with this:

Without mentioning Pakistan? Needless to say, the biggest problem facing the world today is terrorism. Needless to say, Pakistan is a hotbed of terrorism. How does a senior journalist not want India to bring the world’s attention to Pakistan’s breeding of terrorists? How can a “G20 strong nation” not wage a fight on all fronts, against the menace of terrorism?

Next, why the rejoinder about what China will do? Is that the only measure of success in our fight against the terrorism that Pakistan perpetrates in our country?

Feeling left behind, Shekhar Gupta tweeted this:

Quite obviously, Sushma Swaraj was not referring to the current state of the IITs and IIMs. Using such an important speech that gave out such a strong message, to replug an article on his site, speaks volumes about how eager they are to rush to the rescue of the Pakistan media! The lightning speed with which these folks have reacted will put even the Pakistan journalists to shame!

However, in my opinion, the icing on the cake is how The Hindu covered the speeches of Sushma Swaraj and Pakistan’s reply to her. Below is the picture of The Hindu’s front page on Sunday, September 24^th.

It is perhaps understandable that The Hindu thought the “longest sari” story will grab more eyeballs that Sushma Swaraj’s tweet. Now, let’s check their front page on the morning of Monday, September 25^th

The reply from Pakistan gets front page banner headline, while the keynote speech by our External Affairs minister somehow isn’t that important for them! This open espousing of the Pakistani cause is getting murkier by the day.

The next image is courtesy fellow tweeter, “coolfunnytshirt”.

Sanjiv Bhatt needs no introduction. Prerna Bakshi, in her twitter bio, tells us that she is a columnist with a bunch of publications like The Hindu and The Wire. Little wonder then that these lowly views of India vis-à-vis Pakistan exist in their minds!

Pakistan’s representative at the UN also used some of the news from Indian outlets to make a case on “terrorism” in India. The Indian media has also made it look like the stone pelters got a raw deal because of the use of pellet guns on them! Pakistan easily latched onto this, and even tried to make a case at the UN. Quite obviously, they have failed miserably.

In contrast, the regional media has prominently highlighted how Pakistan’s representative has used an image from Gaza as an image from Kashmir and how the move backfired miserably. Perhaps the sections of English media can learn from the regional media!