The Thimpu Government shames every other South Asian government in its ability to charm and manipulate the media. With an expertly choreographed programme of depopulation in progress, the Government had to have ready answers to questions about refugees, so the public relations machinery of Foreign Minister Dawa Tshering ground into action. "Cultural inundation" and terrorism by "ngolops" became the trump cards.
Numerous print, radio, and television journalists have been speaking words scripted by Thimphu over the past two years. and the list stretches from writers for vernacular dailies of Siliguri, to high-flying correspondents of the Western news outlets.
While she has since provided some more-balanced coverage, Barbara Crossette of the New York Times once filed a report on the problems of southern Bhutan that quoted only Bhutanese officials and the King as sources. Writing from Thimphu, she reported of "a campaign of violence and terror by small bands of ethnic Nepalese guerrillas in southern Bhutan." The militants' claims were "couched in the language of democracy and minority rights, but the goal of the movement is free access to the underpopulated forests and valleys of Bhutan for those of Nepalese origin." Crossette quoted no 'militant', however.
James Clad of the The Far Eastern Economic Review, from a reading of a December 1990 cover story headlined "The Khukuri's Edge" as well as the Review's 1992 Yearbook, does not try much harder in trying to fathom Druk and South Asian politics. Among other things, Clad believes that "many militants are advocates of a 'Greater Nepal,' asserting the right of Nepalese to political sovereignty over neighbouring territories they live in."