Naipaul's Friendly Fire

India's ruling party, the BJP, reveres Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul and his writings on India's growing self-confidence, in part because the esteemed author appears to sanction the party's Hindu-nationalistic agenda. So it must have stung last week when Naipaul expressed "profound disappointment" with the government's crackdown on news website Tehelka. The muckraking site made a splash nearly two years ago with a sting operation that exposed Defense Ministry officials accepting bribes. After promising to investigate the matter, a government commission has done little since but investigate Tehelka and freeze the assets of its financier, nearly squeezing the business out of existence....

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