When professors in New York and New Jersey abandon scholarly integrity and claim 250 million people are protesting -- is it ok to call it disinformation? Is it ok to compare it to the Russian disinformation campaign to influence American politics?

In a connected world, assorted activists and self-righteous grifters are going to do what they are going to do. The wily political response can be to tar them all as the New East India Company. But the prime minister has a larger responsibility.

And if the Indian media reports all this the way it often does, as another war of narratives; this will become a battle determined by who can muster a greater number of blowhards.

It is the Indian media that needs to be vigilant. They know India better than any foreign reporter or activist. They shouldn't waste precious airtime and column-inches discussing the pronouncements of those who have no real knowledge of India.

When you highlight the words of inconsequential foreigners, seeing it as form of validation, it doesn't mean India is becoming more important, it just means you don't see your own country as being important.