Read George Orwell's Burmese Days to fathom the Indian state's propensity under Prime Minister Narendra Modi to calumniate his opponents as seditious and portray Bollywood as the "citadel of drugs." Set in Kyauktada, a town in Burma, then a part of the British Indian Empire, the novel has U Po Kyin, a sub-divisional magistrate, compete with Dr Veraswami to enter the local European Club, which is to choose for the first time a native as its member. Kyin is enormously wealthy, but cannot match the doctor in prestige due to his proximity to the British. Kyin decides to sully his rival's image.

Accusing Dr Veraswami of corruption is pointless, Kyin tells his cabal, because the British expect the natives to take bribes. "Clearly, then, it must be disloyalty — nationalism, seditious propaganda," Kyin tells his factotum. "We must persuade the Europeans that the doctor holds disloyal, anti-British opinions." The factotum disagrees, saying it would be hard to prove Dr Veraswami's disloyalty to the British.