The whole world has joined in condemning the execution by the Saudi Arabian government's 15-man death squad of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi earlier this month. The pressure on them was so intense that the Saudis this weekend finally admitted to killing him at their consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. One of the few governments that seemed to have no opinion on the matter (other than weak nations like Pakistan) was India.

You might think this was because Prime Minister Narendra Modi - who ever since he came to power in 2014 has made a free press into his strawman, to be attacked freely by his government and his legion of cheerleaders - has a lot in common with impulsive and ruthless (if myopic) strongmen leaders such as the Saudi Crown Prince Mohd bin Salman, also known as MBS, which in the Arab world now stands for "Mr Bone Saw" after the gruesome way that Khashoggi's corpse was disposed of and secreted out of the consulate in Istanbul.