Wall Street Journal columnist Sadanand Dhume has opted out of addressing the Wharton India Economic Forum, saying that he disapproved of the organisers' decision to cancel the address of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi scheduled later this month.
"It sort of put me in a dilemma, I mean that Wharton should have either not invited Narendra Modi or once they had invited him, they should have stood by it," Dhume told news channel NDTV.
"So this is a situation that would not normally have been a freedom of speech issue, they are free to invite whoever they want to, but once they do I don't think they should have crumbled. I don't think they should have backed out on the face of pressure," he added.