What these correspondents create is a vision of an “authentic” 

India for readers back home, much like the Panzini spaghetti ad that Roland Barthes studied, which — lexically and visually — evoked an “authentic” Italy for the French spaghetti aficionado. Here, it’s a de-centring where the carnival eclipses the electoral contest. The problem is not the images or facts but the syntax and diction that string them together and their frequency of repetition. That’s why every utterance is a “political” act, rooted in the speaker/ writer’s “ideology”. Bias is unavoidable.

Incidentally, across the ideological spectrum, the British press has found a cause in the curious Third Front. Not everybody’s forthcoming about their sympathy for our “disenfranchised”. But it’s there. If you’ve lived in a glass house, you must throw stones on others. 

Before Rilke’s statue we stand exposed. We heed it because it embodies a perfection or superiority we cannot match. We may want to change our lives. After all, we’ve filled their pages with Varun Gandhi, and the Maoists dominated Day 1. Yet, Rilke’s statue has its head missing. It’s only a torso.

sudeep.paul@expressindia.com