India, Nov. 7 -- You have reported from more than 100 countries over your six-decade long career. Why do you think India's foreign-policy establishment, and the Indian media need to stop seeing the world through the Western media?

The difficulty with the cliche is that it embodies truths, which we set aside for fear of being repetitious. For instance, to say that it is a colonial hangover sounds like a cliche, but this is the absolute explanation of why we have not come out of the colonial strait-jacket in foreign coverage. The reason that our elites have been comfortable with The Times of London, Reuters, and The New York Times world view since our independence - which was as much a colonial gift as a result of our aspirations for indep...