If you want to combine it with a South Asian perspective also, it may be true that South Asian-origin journalists potentially have a better viewpoint.

But then nothing is as dangerous as ppl who have no understanding of the subject matter, but who think do. A (albeit non-journalist) analogy would be Bush: he is absolutely convinced he is right in invading Iraq, let everybody else’s opinion be damned. That is what makes him dangerous—like a proverb in Kannada says, he has only two faults. He does not have the capability to consider the whole picture, and he does not listen to others.

Keeping this in mind, I think many (I did not say all, and I am not making a comment on the bloggers yet) sepia-inhabitants would fall into such a category. If you have to ask insightful questions, it also means you must have a genuine concern and awareness about the subject. Not just shout out a couple of sound-bites you hear from CNN or NYT or some other source who have only a fringe interest in India. Don’t mean to offend anyone, but read the comments and you will understand.

The probability of stopping the growth indian civilian power generation expansion is small but not negligible. India needs power and it has defense needs as well. It will work in its self interest.
The chinese have been hinting that they will push for more intrusive inspections(and will succeed in the short term). The french have made agreements with india where even less split between civilian and defense was asked for. They would want to start selling it to india asap b/c this gives them a head start wrt to Americans, this is why they may have wrapped their agreements faster than americans.
The US will not like the French eating up the market share, especialy when US has been considering expanding its own nuclear power generation. Westinghouse and GE want the whole industry to start picking up pace and will lobby in the congress. If the US congress does not approve it now they will reconsider it quite frequently especialy when this program will pick up pace and they see french getting the benifit.
The canadians and the brits were initialy against this, there current positions are not clear. Mostlikely they will turn around or they may play a political game. It would depend on their assesment of what they can sell to india, If they suspect that they wont be able to sell anything of significant value so they may take a political stand and appease liberals and muslims and say that US is polifrating and we are not. The probability of deal totaly falling through are slim. most likely NSG(pushed by china) will force another round of discussions with india. NSG is informal(ie no constituion or bylaws) which means all agreements talk the language of economics followed by power. India does have the economic argurement weather it has the power arguement is not yet known.

Exactly! and for all visits to india and lip services about 2 democracies coming together what the hell did bill clinton do? This despite the dems taking a good deal of money from indian americans. Bush could care less about taj so i’m glad he didnt show up, that is the way it should be. What did the chinese primeir do, he showed up to bangalore first and then to delhi. The messages are clear, get to the point and get there fast.

While the above is true, the flip side is also true in the sense that it will allow those non-desi reporters (especially those with a lot of weight) to better understand and relate to the sub-continent. After all, there is nothing like an unbiased viewpoint.

That would lead to much discrimination.

I visted it once, back in 1983. My dad never visited it, my cousins who go to India far more frequently than I do never have – most of my family in India has not visited the Taj. Visiting the Taj is like visiting the Statue of Liberty.

Turn the tables – when Singh visited Washington in Summer 2005, how many white folks were in the New Delhi press corp that accompanied him?