“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
No diplomatic subtlety here. Singh lays the blame of the Mumbai terror murders on elements in the Pakistani Government. That is an act of war. Now we will see what India does about it.