Does Zaid Hamid command respect in Pakistan?
To assume that Verma commands respect in India is to fail to understand the nature of modern media - which is that anyone who has a controversial POV gets face time.
It is a self fulfilling cycle. Speak trash, incite fear and paranoia, get publicity, attract a few loonies who speak as loudly thereby raising the volume of debate and drowning out the voices of reason.
Rinse and repeat.
Thus noise takes center space in any debate.
It is exactly what Hamid is doing as well.
The verma guy is a good analyst. When he first talked about Indo-China conflict, people took him to be a lunatic, now we know that conflict with China is not out of scope.