No question, we have yoga and vaccines.

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi "walked away after a joint press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, journalist Helle Lyng called out to him, asking why he does not take questions, but got no response." "Modi has not held a traditional press conference since taking office in 2014, and has rarely answered questions on his trips abroad." BBC. "The gagging of the Indian media now normalized after 12 years of a government obsessed with evading questions, either outrightly denying data, or not making data accessible. It is capped by zero press conferences by the prime minister - a first in independent India." "Later, Lyng was invited by the Indian Embassy - publicly on social media - to a presser by diplomats," where "she was told, incredibly, that India is the land of yoga, has handled Covid well, and exports vaccines and medicines." The Wire. No wonder, "India is 157th out of 180 countries in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders on 30 April." It's a drop of 6 places from 151 in 2025. The Wire. Who cares? We have yoga and Covid vaccine. The whole world must think we are a nation of mindless apparatchiks (wikipedia) programmed to babble inanity to protect Dear Leader from any accountability. China-based analyst Keji Mao recalled "presentations he had delivered years ago on China's industrial and technological ecosystem." The Vietnamese "listened carefully when he discussed the gaps between Vietnam and China," and "they openly acknowledged Vietnam's shortcomings and even asked for deeper analysis on areas where the country lagged behind China's industrial model." Indians, on the other hand, became "'quite argumentative' and attempted to challenge the Chinese participant on every point raised." BT. Contemptuously dismissing any comparison, Victor Gao, Vice President of the Center for China and Globalization, said, "We are probably minimum 20 years, if not 30 years, apart from each other in terms of economic development, science and technological development." BT. In the Netherlands, just before Mr Modi arrived, Prime Minister Rob Jetten said that "there were concerns among the Netherlands and other EU member states about 'developments in India' under Modi's BJP." To that MEA Secretary Sibi George pointed to India's 1.4 billion people, massive voter turnouts and a 'noisy democracy' powered by 900 million smartphones. The Wire. Voter turnout has been curtailed by Special Intensive Revision (wikipedia) just before elections with no time for corrections. In Bengal, "The BJP secured 292,24,804 votes against the TMC's 260,13,377: a margin of 32,11,427 votes that translated into a 127-seat lead. This is significantly lower than the 9.1 million voters deleted during the revision, and even lower than the 6.6 million voters removed for reasons other than death." DH. Definitely does not pass the smell test (idioms), the stench of rot still lingers. As for smartphones, India had the second highest number of internet shutdowns in 2024, after Myanmar. TOI. "The issue before the world is not whether India is an ancient civilization," It is. "The real question is whether modern India, government by a Constitution that promises equality to all citizens, is living up to those promises today," wrote AJ Philip. Ask no questions and you'll be told no lies. For some of us, a government that refuses to explain itself is fascist. But, we have yoga and Covid vaccine. So, there.