Overworked mobs

Journalists going to work in Delhi's Fleet Street, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, were bemused to see India Gate-level protections, including traffic barriers and a water cannon, outside the offices of The Indian Express newspaper. The police bandobast, it turns out, was because of credible threats from right-wing mob leaders against the newspaper and one if its reporters, Praveen Swami, following stories poking holes in the conventional narrative of a "terror boat" being apprehended by the Coast Guard on January 1. Many onlookers saw this as a sign of increasing activism by such mob leaders. Presumably the mobs, too, are feeling a little overworked. When the angry activists arrived to burn copies of the paper and the journalist's photograph, they were heard telling the assembled media to hurry up and get photos, since the whole circus had to shift a kilometre north to Daryaganj, where they were scheduled to picket the 3 pm show of PK at Delite Cinema.