The purpose of disclosure demands that Antara inform (at least those in the know) that JLF 2011 had far greater relevance to the present crisis than JLF 2012. 'Focus on JLF 2011' had repeatedly come up in Antara's allusions work, it must be serious.
The standout event of JLF 2011, for Antara, was a skirmish with a female American bodyguard. You could come across such things till the 2011 litfest, then it disappeared. Fit and energetic Americans (Caucasians), wearing paramilitary attire, making sure famous novelists didn't get mobbed by journalists and their silly questions, one of these females kept pushing back Antara and the other reporters. It was Antara's slotted story for the JLF coverage in her newspaper, she had to get the interview, so she tried again, and the American female replied, "Oh, you seem to be an aggressive one" and shoved Antara away.
There was really no knowing who had employed these Caucasian female bodyguards, but Antara had lodged a formal complaint with the organisers. "Did you tell her what newspaper it was? How many copies it sold? Across the country, in Delhi, the circulation figures? That it was the second biggest in India?", one of the organising officials had asked. Antara didn't provide circulation figures as she was being shoved but the next day, she got five minutes of interview time, a 'standing interview', mind you, not even occasion to sit down, the female bodyguard nowhere around.
The problem with scoring 'brownie points' through various kinds of online media (as Antara was supposedly doing) was that the 'brownie points' seemed to have been collected from Antara's life. Every individual understood that a London-based PR firm, established in 1987, had undergone many twists and turns since, not least around 2002-2003, when the controversy over the Invasion of Saddam's Iraq was raging. Hegseth had brought the matter to focus, American journalists and editors who had supported the invasion, and thereby Colin Powell.
What had bothered the London-based PR firm? That in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Tony Blair couldn't lord it over the US Govt and set down terms, that Britain got reduced to the infamous "pet poodle" status? Or was it something else altogether, the massive anti-Iraq invasion protests in London which implied lack of public appetite for worldwide war?
Who organised those protests in London back in 2003, those who read newspapers in Delhi?
March 28, 2025.
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