The resentment at the evident "victimisation" of Perry, who has been asked
to appear before the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) on a
charge of keeping two passports, has been topped by Vajpayee's scathing
attack on a "sensationalist" and irresponsible media.

Reputed columnist and MP Kuldip Nayar expressed disgust at what he termed an
act of vengeance. "I haven't seen such blatant hounding before," he
remarked, "I condemn the action against Perry from all angles."

Nayar conceded that Vajpayee's remarks on the media's inclination towards
the sensational might have been general and not half untrue. "But that is
different from Perry's harassment."

Perry's story on Vajpayee, entitled "Asleep at the Wheel", painted the prime
minister as a feeble, pill-popping septuagenarian with an eating and
drinking problem, implying he was an "unusual" candidate to control a
nuclear arsenal.

According to former editor B.G. Verghese, governments are usually sensitive
about criticism. "All governments bask in the glow of media praise and
bristle at criticism." The Time article was "rather silly", but it did not
call for harassment by the state, he added.

New Delhi took the article as an affront and shot off an angry rejoinder
terming it as baseless and motivated.

And, soon afterwards, Perry was pulled up for allegedly possessing more than
one passport and asked to appear before the FRRO under the home ministry.

Usha Rai, senior journalist and deputy director of the Press Institute of
India (PII), said: "Not that I support what he wrote, but he is definitely
being hounded and harassed by the government, which wants to make his life
difficult."

External affairs ministry officials, however, denied Perry was harassed. "I
don't believe there has been any harassment. As far as investigation is
concerned it is in the purview of the home ministry," a spokesperson said.

Rai also protested Vajpayee's criticism of the media. "They keep doing
this - they also accused the media of 'biased reporting' of the Gujarat
violence."

Not long ago, the Vajpayee government was equally annoyed when the media
heaped blame on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Gujarat for
abetting sectarian violence in the state since February-end.

Other foreign correspondents in India cautiously avoided comment on Perry's
questioning. New York Times' award- winning correspondent Barry Bearak,
said: "We have a policy of not commenting on controversial issues like
this."

Tarun Tejpal, editor of news Web site Tehelka, hit out at the government
move. "It is a joke -- another illustration of the growing intolerance in
the government," he told IANS. "They are being incredibly immature."

Tejpal, whose tehelka.com and its investors have faced various government
action ever since the Web site broke a defence scandal involving the top
brass of defence forces and the government, said "harassment" of Perry was
scandalous.

Tejpal pointed out that heads of state in countries such as the U.S. and
Britain were constantly lampooned.

Journalists said harassment of the media and attempts to browbeat them have
been witnessed in previous regimes too.

In 1990, then prime minister V.P. Singh's deputy, Devi Lal, was livid at
being called the "rogue elephant" by The Economist. Copies of the magazine
were seized as the government tried to prevent it from sale in India.

The protestors chose to ignore -- or did not know -- the fact that a rogue
elephant is one that breaks away from the herd.

Before this, the Indira Gandhi regime unleashed most draconian restrictions
on the press, including cutting off their electricity and printing press,
during the Emergency of 1975-77 when thousands of political opponents were
imprisoned.