Did Putin deserve a hero's welcome?

IT HAPPENS THAT I returned to our beloved motherland, after a short visit to New York, in time to watch our government roll out a hero's welcome for Vladimir Putin.

- TAVLEEN SINGH

On the evening of the day I landed, jet-lagged and bleary-eyed after a nonstop Air India flight, I saw our Prime Minister go to the airport and embrace the Russian dictator. When Putin stepped onto Indian soil, troupes of dancers performed for him before he sped off in the same car as our Prime Minister.

It was not just our government who greeted Putin as if he were a conquering hero, our media did as well. Our 'independent' news channels competed to be more servile and effusive in their praise for a man who, in my opinion, is no hero at all. Not only has he invaded Ukraine illegally, he has also broken all the rules of war. At home, he has treated his opponents with coldblooded cruelty. In a long, fawning interview with the dictator, conducted by a major Indian news channel, I heard not one question about Alexei Navalny, who died last year in a freezing prison cell below the Arctic circle simply for demanding democratic rights in Russia.