When facing foreign criticism, India's defensive aggression won't help

The government’s prickly responses to international commentary on the country’s press freedom, human rights, corruption, treatment of minorities, etc reveal a blunt unwillingness to accept a deteriorating situation on most such issues. Any independent observer can see that media freedom has suffered under the Narendra Modi government. It is equally obvious that the regime has facilitated the creation of a public space that has given rise to hate speech (like public calls for lynching Muslims), the overwhelming of the social media by hostile troll armies, street killings, and the like. None of this is news to Indians, who don’t need international ratings to tell them what the reality is.

What bears noting are the government’s different responses to criticism. Domestic