The British press has worked itself into a gibbering mass of excitement about Cameron’s visit to India. The Indian press has barely noticed it. There is no mention of Cameron on the front page of The Times of India’s website, which is dominated by the spat between cricketing legends Bishen Bedi and Muttiah Muralitharan – in fact, those two are all over the press. Also, the Hindustan Times leads with a scintillating description of a parliamentary point of order; the Calcutta Telegraph splashes with an account of army operations against Maoist rebels in northern Bengal. India Daily has coverage of the Wikileaks saga. And IndiaTV is fixated by an extraordinary claim that the Indian government is considering putting Muslims on reservations – what they actually mean, I now see, is reserving a quota of government jobs for Muslims.
Finally, buried six items down the running order and without an illustration, The Hindu reports that David Cameron is laying the foundations for a new relationship between Britain and India. The Prime Minister has also written a Uriah Heepishly-humble op-ed for the newspaper. Sure, Cameron can’t compete with Murali and Bedi, especially as India is playing a Test Match this week. But I’m sure he hoped for more from this Field of the Cloth of Gold adventure. And he needs to: Tesco won’t sell deluxe biryanis in Mypore unless there’s a popular buzz about Britain in India.
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