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But viewing protests in the country receiving support from outside as synchronised acts is not necessarily or always an act of wisdom. With globalisation of the economy and extreme extraction of profit and natural resources, states are increasingly seen as siding with Capital and with powerful capitalists. It is easy to see why popular and individual voices are raised against such bias and inequality.

It is when the state fails to be responsive to protests and people that protests draw international attention and support. Support for Indian farmers have come from not just farmers in the US, Canada and Australia but also from the British Parliament and one of the most progressive Hollywood actresses, Susan Sarandon.

Sarandon, it is worth pointing out, has been the face of demands for raising daily minimum wages for American women. But she also criticised Hillary Clinton, with whom she had a close rapport, for waging war across the globe. If her support to Indian farmers is labelled as her opposition to the Indian Government or the ruling party, the media advisors to the government need to be changed.

Soros and his Open Society came up in eastern and central Europe after totalitarian communist governments collapsed in 1989. Soros and his Foundation supported the minorities and the persecuted, Jewish, Roma and others. His cause was seen as aligned with the larger American goal of freedom and his investment in such projects linked to globalisation of capital.

The Central European University which he set up has done enormous work in creating a new rung of an Eastern European, English- speaking elite committed to some sort of universal academic ethos. It was a praiseworthy exercise.

One may well have reservations about ulterior financial motives, i.e., fostering globalisation, but his critique of human rights violations in India by themselves do not call for a vilification campaign based on what he allegedly encouraged in central and eastern Europe and where of late he has been vilified.

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Blaming others for our own failures - National Herald