Liberia Bids Adieu to Female Peacekeeping Contingent from India

Photo 1 (10)

President Sirleaf of Liberia saying goodbye to the Indian peacekeepers in Monrovia. Credit: UNMIL Photo/Emmanuel

The first all-female police unit in the history of UN peacekeeping, which had been drawn from the Rapid Action Force of the the Central Reserve Police Force and deployed with the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) in 2007 has completed its mission. It is about to leave the country as Liberia gets ready to assume full responsibility for national security amidst the ongoing UNMIL drawdown.

But the role of Indian peacekeepers in Liberia is not about to end just yet. India is now preparing to deploy about 140 male troops drawn from the paramilitary Sashastra Seema Bal for rendering special police combat and security duties under the UN in Liberia. This would be the first time that a unit of the force – normally involved in border duties – would be deployed on such a mission.

The UNMIL was set up in September 2003 to “support the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and the peace process, protect United Nations staff, facilities and civilians, support humanitarian and human rights activities as well as assist in national security reform, including national police training and formation of a new, restructured military.”

As India celebrated its Republic Day,  Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the UN Secretary General’s special representative  Farid Zarif bid farewell to the Indian Formed Police Unit (FPU). They lauded its role in ensuring peace in Liberia. Incidentally, India also happens to be among the top contributors of peacekeepers to the United Nations.

President Sirleaf, who was closely guarded by this FPU over the past nine years, underlined the contribution of the force in “inspiring Liberian women, imparting in them the spirit of professionalism and encouraging them to join operations that protect the nation”. She noted that the Liberian security service now has 17 per cent women. “We owe all that to you, because it was not even one per cent a few years ago. And these women want to emulate you in the way you’ve served this country,” she said.

Zarif said the unit serving as part of the Indian peacekeeping mission “made a tremendous contribution by bringing greater stability, confidence and assisting in the strengthening of the capacities of the Liberia National Police.”

He said the force also contributed to community affairs, by providing training in the areas of first aid, HIV/AIDS, self-defence and even teaching the art of Indian dance and music in some of the communities with which it interacted.

“You have also reached out to the orphans, at Hebron Orphanage; under your patronage you provided support and assistance there. You also reached out to schools, and the Victory Chapel School in Congo Town was also under your patronage. When you are long gone, the memories that you will be leaving behind will be remembered and fondly cherished by both the people of Liberia as well as your colleagues within the United Nations.”

Through the nearly nine years that the force was deployed in Liberia, the women peacekeepers were drawn from the three battalions of the RAF by rotation. Before they left for Liberia, they were trained about the polity and security conditions of West Afric at the CRPF training camp in Delhi. The decision to send the unit to Liberia was taken as the country had been torn apart by 14 years of civil war.

At a time when child soldiers and sex crimes had become rampant in this African nation, the all-woman force had imparted a sense of security to the women.

The unit, which usually had about a 100 women soldiers, with about 25 male support staff in the form of drivers, mechanics and cooks, had also actively guarded the President’s Office during the period.
It also played a crucial role in ensuring conduct of elections in Liberia which were coordinated by the United Nations and Liberian government.

In a television interview, one of the former Commandants of the force, Poonam Gupta, had noted that it was through their discipline and focus on the job at hand that the all-woman unit had demonstrated that women can perform the security duties as well as the men.

India is now preparing to deploy about 140 paramilitary male troops drawn from the Sashastra Seema Bal for rendering special police combat and security duties under the UN in Liberia. This would be the first time that a unit of the force involved in border duties would be deployed on such a mission.

A Music Video Will Naturally Show Exotica, Not Infrastructure Development

Roopak Saluja, who handled the production for Coldplay’s new video shot in Mumbai says calling it cultural appropriation is ridiculous.

Beyonce in Coldplay's latest video

Beyonce in Coldplay’s latest video

The man who handled the India-end of the new Coldplay video, Hymn for the Weekend is amused by the controversies surrounding it and calls them “ridiculous.” “It’s a music video, not a documentary—of course it will show exotica and not India’s infrastructure development,” says Roopak Saluja, CEO of The 120 Media Collective, which was the line producer in Mumbai during the making of the video.

The video, posted on YouTube on January 29, has already garnered over nine million views and has been almost totally filmed in Mumbai. It opens with a shot of a peacock and then moves on to sadhus, holi, a ride in the city’s famed kaali-peeli taxi, fishermen’s boats, Mumbai’s street life and even an old cinema — many of the exotic, and some say cliched, images of the city are very much there. Chris Martin sings in different locations, while Beyonce is seen on posters and on movie screens, starring in a film called Rani

While the general consensus has been favourable, critics have said it panders to the usual stereotypes about India in bright hues. “Cultural appropriation” is another charge that has been thrown at it, referring to the Indian finery worn by Beyonce, who makes an appearance in the 4 minute 20 second song. Indian actor Sonam Kapoor also plays a small part in it. The video has been directed by Ben Mor.

“These are images of India after all, what’s wrong with that? A video like this is not going to show airports, bridges and the like. Someone even said, why have they shown a single screen cinema and not IMAX, as though viewers anywhere care that India has IMAX,” says Saluja, whose company worked closely with the producers in identifying locations.

“The whole thing was shot in three or four days. Many locations were picked on the fly. If they looked colourful, they were shot. The sadhus on the street were visually interesting, so they were included” Saluja says while some have criticised it, large numbers of people have praised it for its aesthetic values. “But it’s the vocal criticism that gets amplified and then picked up by the media, Indian and international, which is always looking for such stories. Intriguingly, the taxi Martin rides in was designed by Pakistan artist Samiya Arif as part of an art project.

The idea for a Coldplay video in India was developed after lead singer Chris Martin’s visit to India last year, when he did an impromptu gig at a Delhi pub. While fans were enthralled, Martin fell in love with India and decided to film a video here. His team contacted Saluja and it was on.

There has been no official reaction from Coldplay but Saluja says the feedback from the fans has been overwhelmingly positive. “People have been appreciating the video for what it is and it’s a great song too.”

The Romance and Mystique of Waheeda Rehman in Chaudhvin ka Chand

Waheeda Rehman celebrates her birthday on February 3, and a fan insists that never did she look as alluring as in the title song of Chaudhvin ka Chand

A still from the film Chaudhvin ka Chand

A still from the film Chaudhvin ka Chand

In the early 1960s some eccentric genius put everything together: song, cast, photography, scene-setting. And the song-sequence ‘Chaudhvin Ka Chand’  from the Hindi film of that name became – and stayed – one of the most haunting romantic song-sequences in Hindi cinema history.

But this isn’t about Chaudhvin ka Chand the film – no better than your average romance-drama flick. This isn’t about the song per se either. It’s about the song-sequence on screen and The Beauty who made it so irrevocably magical.

The sequence is simple enough: the film’s producer, Guru Dutt, plays Aslam, alone with his new bride Jameela, played by Waheeda Rehman.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t know Urdu or Hindi (although it won’t hurt to understand the lyrics). It doesn’t matter if you’ve never heard of the great Rafi or the others. If you watch and listen to the song-sequence, with the silent reverence it deserves, it will charm.

Chaudhvin ka Chand’ as a song is one of the most lilting romantic ballads in the history of romantic ballads. Music, lyrics and singer come together so much like a Trinity. It’s impossible to tell father, from son, from spirit. It’s impossible to tell which came first, which second and which third. They’re fused, as if inseparably. Of course ‘Kabhi Kabhi Mere Dil Mein’ and several songs from Indian (not just Hindi) cinema, also boast of this mystical fusion.

‘Chaudhvin ka Chand’ as a song-sequence went further. It matched the classical romance setting with the actors (the ever-romantic-ever-longing Dutt and the incurably gorgeous Waheeda). Here, several other ‘hits’ fall short. The voices of the actors, their persona, demeanour and the scene-setting do not match the otherwise glorious music, lyrics and singers.

‘Kabhi Kabhi Mere Dil Mein’, for instance, sounds heavenly through speakers. The Trinitarian theory works splendidly. On screen? It’s less than perfect. It demanded a classical romance ‘period’ scene-setting and didn’t get one. It demanded classical-romantic actors and didn’t get any.

Waheeda makes the difference

What sets ‘Chaudhvin ka Chand’ apart? The classical romanticism that the song demanded found expression in the ‘period’ scene-setting and cast. But most importantly, the central character of the sequence is Waheeda. This is where it leaves other ‘very good’ or ‘great’ classical romance song-sequences behind.

Dutt knew. All he had to do was point the camera – Waheeda shone regardless. She shone in spite of anything or anyone in the frame. Especially with little or no make-up or ornaments on.

Dozens of pretty to good-looking actresses have ‘sung’ in memorable classical romance song-sequences in Hindi cinema over the last 60 to 70 years. Not one comes close to the immaculate Waheeda. If anything she’s the one challenging her own rank with appearances in Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. But in no other song-sequence is she as radiant as she is in CKC.. But in no other song-sequence is she as radiant as she is in ‘Chaudhvin ka Chand’.

There would be no full moon, no dazzling sun, no Jameela, without Waheeda.

Opening shot: a full-screen glimpse of a sleeping Waheeda. Moonlight and shadow tease each other – and us.

Next, we see Guru Dutt. He’s speechless at first. No music, no words, nothing to aid him. Helpless, he sighs. Then aid comes as a wave – in music and words. And he pays tribute in the purest Tareef tradition.

The camera creeps like a moonbeam toward Waheeda, stealthily, anxious that any sound beyond the song itself, might rudely wake her.

At first her face is turned ever so slightly upward, away. Then, still asleep she turns gently, slowly toward us. That’s when Dutt musters enough strength to sing as the camera alternates between worshipper and worshipped.

Opening line: Chaudhvin ka chaand ho, ya afataab ho [Are you the full moon or the sun?]

Then: Jo bhi ho tum Khuda ki kasam, la-jawaab ho [Whatever you are….]

In the classical tradition Khuda ki kasam (‘By God’ or ‘I swear by God’) is used exceptionally. Among conservative communities, almost never, because whatever follows isn’t just accurate or fact but the highest truth. Anyone using such a prefix in vain invites the highest punishment. So, it’s no small thing when Dutt uses it with the utter confidence that he’s right, indisputably right. As it happens, those are the moments in the sequence when he shuts his eyes, almost as if closing them to anything but the truth, almost as if the angelic perfection he sees is beyond bearing.

Dutt’s closed eyes in the song-sequence ask conflicting questions that the film doesn’t. He asks: Isn’t it madness to leave such blinding grace unveiled, unprotected? Aren’t even the most precious flowers guarded by branch or thorn? But then again, he asks: Isn’t it madness for such beauty to be hidden at all?

The word la-jawaab doesn’t have a precise translation. Not one that does justice anyway. But roughly it means: that which doesn’t have a suitable reply or that which is matchless, incomparable.

Rightly, Waheeda offers no comfort, no reassurance, no answer. Unlike some other song-sequences, where the object of worship starts questioning or answering the worshipper, in word or song or both, she remains wordless throughout.

If you’ve only ‘listened’ to the song before, I don’t blame you. But you wouldn’t just ‘listen’ to the full moon, would you?

One video-link of the song-sequence on YouTube offers a modest English translation. Purists will naturally shrink in horror; they’re right. No translation, no matter how scholarly, comes close to the original lyrics. Still, it’s manna to the uninitiated who don’t understand Hindi or Urdu.

To Dutt, we can only offer humble gratitude: ‘madman’ all right, but somehow genius as well. He, more than anyone else, seemed to have grasped and captured so intuitively on camera, the magnificent Waheeda – repeatedly and forever.

Rudolph Lambert Fernandez is the author of ‘Greater than Bradman’. 

Chomsky Interview: ‘The US is One of the Most Fundamentalist Countries in the World’

‘As traditional, mainstream parties decline in Europe, at the edges you are getting increased activism and participation, both Left and Right. Something similar is happening in the US’

Professor Noam Chomsky of Linguistics and Philosophy. photo: Donna Coveney/MIT

Noam Chomsky, professor emeritus of linguistics and philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Credit: Donna Coveney/MIT

Cambridge, MA (US): The United States is a very fundamentalist, religious country – one of the most extreme in the world, says Noam Chomsky, arguably that country’s best-known political dissident of our times.

“And that’s been true since its origins,” he says, explaining this apparently ultra-religious facet of the US and its impact on electoral politics in an interview to The Wire.

There are not too many countries in the world where two-thirds of the population awaits The Second Coming, Chomsky said, adding that half of them think it is going to be in their lifetimes. “And maybe a third of the population believes the world was created 10,000 years ago, exactly the way it is now. Things like that are pretty weird, but that is true in the United States and has been for a long time.”

However, the religious fundamentalists have become a political force more recently, notes Chomsky, tying the country’s “religious-fundamentalist” side to what we see in the run up to the US presidential elections, particularly the mobilisation of the religious right and the soaring popularity of Republican candidate Donald Trump.

At 87, Noam Chomsky shows few signs of fatigue or cynicism. Sitting amid overflowing bookshelves at his office at MIT’s Department of Linguistics and Philosophy – where he has taught for over half a century – he speaks slowly, with professorial pauses. A few plants stand in the corners of his room lit by the muted winter sun. And there is Roxy, his personal assistant’s particularly gentle cocker spaniel – Chomsky calls her a cat – quietly roaming about, occasionally fixing her curious gaze on visitors.

Chomsky’s dissenting voice may have shaped the politics of generations, but nothing about him fits the stereotype of a “brooding intellectual”. He makes fun of his colleagues and seems quite happy to be made fun of. “You have started resembling Bertrand Russell,” jokes his personal assistant Beverly Stohl, suddenly struck by their similarity as her boss walks across the philosopher’s imposing black and white portrait on the wall. “Oh, I do?” he asks with a laugh, barely audible. I too find myself distracted, comparing him with Russel. They did look a bit alike if you looked at the pearl-white hair — Chomsky’s curling around his ears— and the pointed noses.

Over the last six months, Chomsky has been commenting extensively on the 2016 US presidential elections. On the one hand, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders – who has brought income inequality on to the table – is drawing considerable support. He has managed to raise about $33 million for his campaign, shattering individual donor records. On the other, someone like Trump on the Republican side is leading in the polls.

In Chomsky’s view the apparently contradictory trends are reflections of the same phenomenon. “It is also something you see in Europe. The impact of the neoliberal programmes of the past generation almost everywhere has been to undermine democratic participation, to impose stagnation or sometimes decline on the majority of the population and to concentrate wealth very narrowly, which of course then in turn affects the political system and how it works.”

And this is seen in different ways, in different places, but some phenomena are common. In Europe, the mainstream more or less traditional parties – Social Democratic, Christian democratic – are declining. “At the edges you are getting increased activism and participation, both Left and Right. Something similar is happening here [in the US].”

An ever-growing anger among wide sections of the population and a hatred of institutions is visible. “There is plenty of anger and good reasons for it, if you look at what is happening to people.” Citing a recent study in the United States that points to increasing mortality rates of less educated, white men in the age range of 45-55 years, he says: “that just does not happen in developed societies.”

“It is a reflection of depression, hopelessness, concern that everything is lost – nothing is in our lives, nothing is in our futures, then at least show your anger.” The propaganda system in the US, in England, in continental Europe is designed to focus that anger on people who are even more deprived and miserable – such as “immigrants, ‘welfare cheats’, trade unions and all kinds of people who somehow you think are getting what you are not getting”.

The Trump phenomenon

Donald Trump at a political rally. Credit : Michael Vadon

Donald Trump at a political rally. Credit : Michael Vadon

The anger then is not focused on those who are really responsible – the power-hungry private sector or the huge financial institutions which are basically supported by tax payers. “But don’t look at them, look at the people who are even below you – like a mother with dependent children who lives on food stamps, she is the one who is a problem. Some of the immigrants fleeing from the destruction that the US caused in Central America and are trying to survive, so look at them – and that’s the Trump phenomenon,” says the political theorist, presenting his analysis of Trump’s ever-growing hate speeches that seem to resonate with some sections of the US’s population.

The data is not precise enough to be sure. It is commonly said that these are angry blue collar males, but they are probably lower middle class when you look more closely. They are white collar professionals, those running small businesses and people who have been pushed out of the system. “You can understand the appeal – at both edges of the political system. It is coming from similar roots, but pointed at a different direction.”

The other group that leaders like Trump seek to please are the nativists, according to. Chomsky. Therefore, they employ the rhetoric of “They are taking our country away from us.” ‘They’ being, minorities, immigrants and others. “It used to be a nice white Anglo-Saxon country but it’s gone.” That sentiment, he says, makes the US an increasingly terrified population, probably the most frightened country in the world. “It has been the safest country in the world for a long time, but if you look at fear it is overwhelming. The fear of ISIS is higher in the United States probably than it is in Turkey.” This sense of deep insecurity also explains the “crazy gun culture”.

Even the Republican establishment – essentially bankers and corporate executives that run the party – are unable to get rid of candidates like Trump. Earlier in the case of Mike Huckabee or Rick Santorum the party establishment managed to “crush them” using advertising and other such means. “This is the first election they can’t do it. They are amazed, they are upset, and the Republican establishment is going berserk.”


 

Also read: Why people around the world are rooting for Bernie Sanders


 

And that, Chomsky says, is because the anger around the anti-Washington sentiment, which he thinks should actually be anti-corporate sentiment, is so overwhelming. “You can see it – like the Supreme Court right now is probably going to undermine what remains of public service unions.”

That sentiment is popular in much of the country, he says, where people ask ‘why this fireman should get a pension when I can’t get a good job.’ “Well the reason why he has a pension is because he accepted lower wages, that’s why he has a pension. That requires thought and organisation. In a society of isolated people where each person is alone with his Fox News and iPhone people don’t understand what is happening. It is happening here in this fashion and it is happening in Europe in other ways, but I think these phenomena are very real.”

‘Sanders, a New Dealer’

He sees Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, as appealing to a huge part of the population which is basically traditionally progressive. “Though he happens to use the word socialist, it just means New Dealer.”

Chomsky considers Sanders a New Deal democrat, which in today’s political spectrum is way off on the left. President Eisenhower would look like a radical leftist in today’s spectrum, literally. Eisenhower said that anyone who questions New Deal measures – a series of domestic measures introduced in the US in the 1930s as a response to the Great Depression – is just out of the political system. “By now practically everyone questions them, Sanders is unusual in that he upholds them.”

Bernie Sanders. Credit: Mark Nozell/Flickr CC 2.o

Bernie Sanders. Credit: Mark Nozell/Flickr CC 2.o

On earlier occasions Chomsky has said that the Sanders campaign is valuable for flagging some important economic issues, but the senator wouldn’t be able to do much even if he is elected president – “which was unlikely in the system of bought elections” — for Sanders would be alone with virtually no Congressional support .

Situating the Sanders movement within broader political shifts in the US and globally, Chomsky says one of the things that has happened in the neo-liberal period, in Europe too, is that all the parties have moved to the right. “Today’s Democrats, Clinton-style Democrats, are pretty much what used to be called moderate Republicans. And the Republicans just went way off the spectrum. They are so dedicated to service to wealth and the corporate sector that they simply cannot get votes on their own programmes.” In order to just try and stay in the political system, they try to mobilise sections of the population that have always been there but were never really politically organised — like evangelical Christians.

On state spending on public services, which repeatedly figures in the US election campaign, Prof. Chomsky says people’s opinion is varied and nuanced, often coloured by racist ideas.

Obama, a target for racists

Even people who call themselves conservatives say they want more spending on education, on health, but not on welfare which, he says, has been demonised by “Reagan racism”. Foreign aid presents another interesting case. “When you ask people what they think about foreign aid they say it is way too high, we are giving everything away to undeserving people. When you ask them what they think foreign aid is they estimate it way beyond what it is. When you ask them what it should be, they want it to be much higher than what it actually is. Things like that are consistent over a long period.”

Chomsky calls the US healthcare system “an international scandal”, and an outcome of what he terms the neoliberal assault. This is happening in England too. The National Health Service in England is probably the best health system in the world. They are now trying to dismantle it and turn it into something like the American system which is one of the worst in the world.”

The American healthcare system is about twice the per capita cost of comparable countries and has some of the worst outcomes. The reason, he says, is straightforward. It is privatised, it is very inefficient. There is a huge bureaucracy. And companies are interested in profit, not health. “Ask the population what they think. For years, people have been in favour of national health care. When Obama came along with his proposal, almost two thirds of the population was in favour of what was called a public option. But despite public opinion, national health care was not even considered.”

Obama’s proposal, which was a mild improvement on the scandalous system, is opposed by most of the population because they see it through the propaganda system as the government harming their healthcare. “In fact, it is kind of interesting that it is called Obamacare even by the Democrats, even by his supporters. Why is it called Obamacare? Medicare was introduced during the Johnson administration. Is it called Johnsoncare? This is just a reflection of straight racism.” It became rather evident during Obama’s presidency. “A lot of hatred of Obama, which is unbelievable, is really visceral racism. There is still a large part of the Republican that thinks he was born somewhere else – Kenya, he is a Muslim.”

“In fact, recent polls show that about a quarter of Republicans think that he maybe Antichrist. That is tied up with the fundamentalist, religious tales about Armageddon, Antichrist and Jesus having a battle, and the saved souls rise to heaven maybe in our lifetimes. These are big things in the United States. That’s where the Republican base is now.”

(Meera Srinivasan is the IWMF Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow 2015-16)

So What Did Really Happen
In Malda?

The terrorist attack on the Air Force Station at Pathankot on January 2 remained a subject of discussion and debate in the mainstream media for several days. The newspapers carried bold headlines and learned op-ed pieces. Different television channels vied with one another to host commentators from across the spectrum – from the informed to the opinionated to the totally ignorant. The TRP-driven frenzy undoubtedly stretched the resources of the various television channels. As a result, almost every angle of the Pathankot incident was commented upon at length.

Which is all very well. Except that one aspect seems to have escaped popular notice. And that is the fact that Pathankot pushed the happenings at Malda, West Bengal to the bottom edge of the television screens.

An acknowledged limitation of the visual medium is that it has to grab eyeballs. If footage of an event is not available then, for all practical purposes, the event never happened as far as the TV channels are concerned.

And so it was with Malda.

The mainstream print media, too, either chose to ignore the happenings in Malda or remained preoccupied with Pathankot and cricket. The developments in Malda and commentaries on them started trickling into the media only much later. It is remarkable that there were so many sketchy and contradictory reports.

The space left by the mainstream media was filled by the social media, with its inherent biases and conflicting viewpoints. In the absence of any comprehensive or credible report, most people drew their conclusions from information available on the Internet or whatever was circulating via Twitter, WhatsApp et al.

The picture remained as clear as mud.

So what happened in Malda?

From the various reports in the social media and belated analyses carried in some periodicals, it seems that one Kamlesh Tiwari, an activist of an organisation styled as the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha, passed derogatory comments against the Prophet Mohammed, for which he was arrested in Lucknow on December 3. A month later, a little known Muslim organisation, Edara-e -Shariah, organised a protest meeting in far away Kaliachak, Malda, at which 10,000 participants were expected. Instead, a huge number of people collected – with estimates varying from 1,50,000 to 2,50,000. How they were mobilised remains unclear. Whether the state government was aware of this huge gathering and whether it took any action is not known. But it is not contested that the crowd went on a rampage, blocked the national highway and burnt the Kaliachak police station and about two dozen motor vehicles.

Around this kernel of events, there have been many assertions, insinuations and accusations.

Events alleged to have taken place include misbehaviour by the Border Security Force, the burning of effigies (whose?) by the mob, raising of slogans against the Prime Minister and Hindutva organisations, unspecified deaths in firing by the crowd, looting of shops and houses and targeting of some Hindu homes by rampaging mobs.

Those alleged to be behind the violence included the whole pantheon of law breakers. They were variously mentioned as drug traffickers, cattle smugglers, illicit arms manufacturers and dealers, illicit poppy cultivators, fake currency cartels etc. The alleged motives ranged from the intention to burn crime exhibits and records in the police station to attempting to ‘teach a lesson’ to the law enforcement agencies. It was also mentioned that the criminal elements targeted the BSF because the border guarding force had cracked down on their illegal activities.  Some reports spoke of Bangladeshi migrants taking part.

Politics all around

With elections to the West Bengal State Assembly due in April/May this year, the events were viewed only through the prism of local and national politics. Every major party either got involved or was alleged to be involved. Some prominent Muslim leaders behind the violence were said to belong to the CPM. The Congress was alleged to be making attempts to retrieve the legacy of A. B. A. Ghani Khan Choudhury. The Trinmool Congress was alleged to be appeasing the Muslim organisations and leaders involved in order to make inroads into a former Congress bastion. And the BJP was alleged to be attempting to polarise the Hindu populace in order to reap benefits in the elections.

On January 9, the chief minister of West Bengal is reported to have said that the incident was “not communal”. She went on to blithely make statements to the effect that “It was BSF versus the people. There’s a struggle there. The state is not involved. The issue was distorted and misinformed. The locals had some issues with the BSF.” Another statement ascribed to her was that the incident had “nothing to do with my party or the state government or the state police. But we managed it.” A prominent TMC Member of Parliament held the “social media army” of the BJP responsible for the Malda incident and accused the BJP of trying to give a communal colour to a riot ahead of the elections.

The BJP also reacted to the incident with the elections in mind. The shrill condemnation of the incident was wholly political, right from the fact finding team of parliamentarians, despatched to Malda by the party president, to a delegation of party leaders calling on the President of India.

Even the Union home minister chose to comment on the developments in Malda from a platform which was primarily election oriented. He was quoted as saying in Ashoknagar (West Bengal) that “The incident in Malda is not a small incident. I want to tell the TMC government that the Malda case should be solved.” It was not a surprise that he chose to use the term “TMC government” rather than the “state government” – which, under the Constitution, is mandated to maintain public order.

It would have been perfectly in order for the Union home ministry to seek an immediate report from the state government on the happenings in Malda. Not because there is a BJP government at the Centre and a TMC government in West Bengal but because Article 355 of the Indian Constitution makes it the duty of the Central government “to protect every state against external aggression and internal disturbance and to ensure that the government of every state is carried on in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution”. Such a report seems to have been sought; but in the lackadaisical time frame of centre-state correspondence this could take a while.

Electoral considerations trounce national interest

An authoritarian regime – or even a state more alive to its sovereignty – would have ensured swift retribution for the culprits of Malda. Terms such as ‘uprising’, ‘insurrection’, ‘rebellion’ or ‘waging war against the state’ might have been bandied about. But no such discussions have taken place. Probably this is the price the country pays for having the kind of polity it does.

So what really happened in Malda?

What happened is that the country has started paying the price for the kind of democracy it is. One in which political parties are more important than governments and the pursuit of power trumps the rule of law. Electoral considerations have finally trounced national interest.

Meanwhile, quite curiously, the burnt Kaliachak police station was repaired and repainted in a matter of days. There were reports that broken windows in houses were all replaced. Burnt trees were chopped down and altogether removed. New street lights were installed.

A suspicious mind could well be tempted to conclude that some party, or parties unknown, was anxious to destroy any evidence of the alleged mayhem.

One unrelated question lingers – So was there a major earthquake in Manipur? Probably not; because there was no interesting video footage. Probably not; because no elections are due in that state. Probably not; because no one knows where Manipur is.

K.C. Verma is a former chief of the R&AW. The views expressed are his own.

 

The Sorrows of Young Villupuram

How the pressures of a constricting education system in Tamil Nadu and the widespread media coverage of a suicide pushed three young students over the edge.

How the pressures of a constricting education system in Tamil Nadu and the widespread media coverage of a suicide pushed three young students over the edge

Pictures of Monisha, Priyanka and Saranya who committed suicide by jumping into a well last week

Monisha, Priyanka and Saranya, students of SVS College of Natruopathy and Yoga in Tamil Nadu, committed suicide by jumping into a well on January 23.

Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula’s suicide on January 17 hit the headlines of newspapers in almost every Indian language. Television channels descended on Hyderabad, providing live updates as the issue took centrestage on news debates in almost every regional language channel. Tamil channels were no exception to this.

Barely a week later, on January 23, three young girls – students at the SVS College of Naturopathy and Yoga in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu – jointly committed suicide by jumping into a well. On the same day, in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, a 22-year-old student hanged himself. A day later, another girl committed suicide by jumping off the terrace at Chennai’s Anna University. The next day, January 25, a 19-year-old girl hanged herself in her hostel room at the Stanley Medical College and Hospital in Chennai. The suicide toll that has made it to the news, in the wake of Rohith Vemula, has now touched six in a span of just three days, a statistic that has got experts worried.

“The media must be careful and follow guidelines while reporting suicides,” warned Dr Lakshmi Vijaykumar, mental health expert working with the World Health Organisation. “There is something called Werther’s Effect – this can be seen in the aftermath of a much publicised suicide like that of Rohith Vemula, when the media sensationalises it. This leads to a spate of copycat suicides in people in the same community or in the same age group,” she said.

In the late 1700s, German writer Goethe wrote The Sorrows of Young Werther. The book was published just after dueling as a means of settling disputes was banned by many countries in Europe. In the book, Werther falls in love, loses his woman and finally commits suicide by shooting himself. A spate of similar suicides by young men followed the release of the book, forcing many countries to ban it. Subsequent research has shown that the Werther Effect does in fact exist.

“I am not saying everyone in the same age group or community will decide upon suicide,” explained Vijaykumar. “But those youngsters who are vulnerable are more likely to consider suicide as an option if there is a high profile suicide in the news,” she said.

The suicide note of the three young students at the SVS College in Villupuram district hints at this too. “We are committing suicide so that action will be taken against this college,” says the joint suicide note left behind by the three girls Saranya, Priyanka and Monisha – an eerie throwback to the Rohith Vemula case where corrective steps were taken by Hyderabad University only after his death.

SVS College of Naturopathy and Yoga Science in Chinna Salem, Villupuram district which is now sealed. Credit: Special Arrangement

SVS College of Naturopathy and Yoga Science in Chinna Salem, Villupuram district, now sealed. Credit: Special Arrangement

Apart from the copycat aspect, the Villupuram suicides have exposed the dark underbelly of the thriving private education sector in Tamil Nadu – marked by poor quality of teaching, inadequate infrastructure and a lack of support and sensitivity in colleges towards young women and men taking their first steps toward adulthood. By all accounts, SVS College suffered from all these problems and more. But the pathology runs deeper still.

A constricting regime of rote learning in schools and colleges, say experts, contributes to the main part of the problem, with ambitious parents chipping in with more pressure on students. “The child has no say in what course he or she wants to do,” said Vijaykumar. “The parents decide what they should study and which college they should go to. The system of a single-point exam too is wrong. I know of so many bright students who fell ill before the final exam and could not perform well. Students should be graded and assessed at multiple points and on multiple factors,” she added.

Ambitious parents too play their part in not being supportive of students, despite warning signs. “My daughter had complained about the college to me a number of times,” said MK Tamilarasan, father of Monisha, one of the three girls who committed suicide in Villupuram. “There were no teachers there, no facilities and the students were threatened constantly. I had told her that I will transfer her to another college,” he said. When quizzed about whether he had confronted the college management with his daughter’s complaints, Tamilarasan said he had not done so. “I did not want her studies to get affected,” he said.

Main causes of suicide in TN, 2014

Tamil Nadu is one of the most sought after hubs in terms of tertiary education. Students from across the country flock down south to this state, home to the maximum number of engineering colleges in the country – over 500 of them, mostly private. But a 2014 National Employability report by private firm, Aspiring Minds, shows Tamil Nadu’s graduates at the bottom 25th percentile, along with Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh’s graduates – a telling take on the quality of the education imparted in the vast number of colleges in the state.

“The death of these three girls is bone-chilling because it brings out these huge pressures on these women and on parents of women to go for courses which will push them towards ‘economic fulfillment’,” said Soundarya Rajesh, founder of Avatar Career Creators. “One of the mothers has said that she wanted her daughter to be a doctor and that is why she sent her daughter to the Naturopathy college. Are we even clear about our goals? 48% of women under the age of 30 drop out of the workplace citing a multitude of reasons – it could be the lack of a sensitive supportive boss, safety at workplace. If education is not providing resilience, addressing basic attitudinal issues, what is the purpose and use of education? What is the education system really doing? We have to ask ourselves that,” she said.

The mushrooming of private institutions has meant a greater demand for teachers and this has resulted in staff who are not as qualified to teach and who are not sensitive to students’ needs, say experts. “Most suicides amongst students take place as a result of some kind of public shaming by teachers and peers,” said Vijaykumar. “Many students who come from economically weaker sections of society struggle to cope in college. Teachers often poke fun at them in front of classmates, punish them and mock their failures and this can push a vulnerable student over the edge,” she said.

Kala Vijaykumar, President of SSN College in Chennai agrees and speaks of her own experience with first generation learners and students from rural areas with no English knowledge. “25-30% of students are first generation learners who lack certain skills but have talent,” she said. “They need additional support to help them with some things like speaking English for instance. The transition from a Tamil medium of instruction in government schools to English medium in college is quite tough. They need a lot of motivation and any additional support will help. We have a special scheme where we admit 25-30 of students from government Tamil-medium schools who are toppers and we coach them in soft skills for three weeks beforehand,” she added.

A 2013 report by the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) predicts that one in every four graduates in the world by 2030 will be a product of the Indian education system. FICCI also speaks of a robust global workforce of 95 crores and a teeming student population of 7 crores.

Educational_status_of_victims_in_Tamil_Nadu,_2014_Number_chartbuilderIn stark contrast, Tamil Nadu vies with Maharashtra for top spot in the number of suicides in the country, accounting for 12.2% of the total suicides in the nation. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana together too are not trailing too far behind Tamil Nadu. It is perhaps time for policy makers to take a serious re-look at the rotting education system in the southern states.

 

Sandhya Ravishankar is a Chennai based journalist. She tweets at  @sandhyaravishan

So Coldplay’s ‘Exotifying’ India, Just as Bollywood has Done to Others for Years

Its one-sided representation of a rich and diverse life though is hardly the rock group’s problem alone. India’s film industry has been among the worst offenders when it comes to depicting members of other cultures and races.

Its one-sided representation of a rich and diverse life though is hardly the rock group’s problem alone. India’s film industry has been among the worst offenders when it comes to depicting members of other cultures and races.

A shot from the music video for 'Hymn for the Weekend', Coldplay's single out January 2016. Source: YouTube

A shot from the music video for ‘Hymn for the Weekend’, Coldplay’s single out January 2016. Source: YouTube

Last July, Chris Martin, lead singer of the British band Coldplay, performed an impromptu gig at a bar in New Delhi. There was no pre-gig hype, no rush for tickets, and no more that fifty people in the audience. Out-of-focus Instagram posts and gloating videos from the event were the only proof that the gig ever happened. It was a distinctly un-celebrity-like thing to do.

This week, Martin stuck to being predictable. He had an India Moment, like that other British band from the sixties or, more recently, those electronica artists and that Australian rapper. Since no single piece of art (let alone a music video) can represent an entire people and culture, Coldplay’s brand new video for the song ‘Hymn for the Weekend’ features what one imagines are Martin’s favourite bits of India: Mumbai taxis with colourful interiors, dilapidated buildings, holi, and the occasional child dressed as a monkey or a blue god. Beyonce also features on Coldplay’s album and appears in Martin’s vision as an angel, or its Indian equivalent: a Bollywood queen.

Shortly after the video’s release, users on Twitter and Tumblr began calling out Martin and Beyonce for appropriating South Asian culture as well as for stereotyping India and Indians. While the conversation about cultural (mis)appropriation is important in a world homogenised by a white, Euro-American cultural paradigm, the conversation can resemble a slanging match with little nuance online. bindi kyie Broadly defined, this form of misappropriation takes place when a majority culture borrows aspects of a minority culture’s identity, using them out of context or without permission. Often, these identity markers which stigmatise members of the minority culture become “cool” when misappropriated by those who belong to the dominant culture. In the video for ‘Hymn for a Weekend’, Beyonce-as-Martin’s-angel is seen wearing a scarf on her head, akin to a ghoonghat or dupatta, chains on her head and face as well as henna on her hands. As a black woman of African-American and Creole descent, it’s impossible to say that she’s (mis)appropriating cultural markers that are alien to her: scarves around the body, such as netelas and diracs, facial jewellery and henna designs all feature in the ethnic costumes of various African peoples.

Three Ethiopian girls wearing the netela. Credit: Author Damien Halleux Radermecker/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

Three Ethiopian girls wearing the netela. Credit: Author Damien Halleux Radermecker/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

Chris Martin, who performs on a street corner while covered in Holi colours, and sticks his head out of taxis to gaze at a diwali-lit sky, never actually attempts to appear Indian in the video. He does, however, behave like a classic white-dude backpacker in that he only notices saffron flags and bearded holy men (can’t believe no one told him that we’re secular). Finally, since information about the video’s shoot locations and contents have been doing the rounds since September last year, it can hardly be argued no one knew what Coldplay was doing.

It’s fair to wonder why Martin, Coldplay or Ben More (the video’s director) resorted to a bunch of lazy clichés to depict India. In the time he spent here as ambassador for the Global Poverty Project, Martin met members of Oxfam India, Prime Minister Modi, Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal and various NGOs. He also hung out at a bar, listened to Raghu Dixit, and visited Kalyanpuri’s slums and the trash pickers at Madanpur Khadar. Why did none of these people feature in his head full of dreams? Primarily, Indian Twitter’s problem seems to be the lack of representation of People Like Us, who listen to Coldplay and Beyonce, stream music on Spotify and Tidal, and mistake sullen-faced, dark children who b-boy on streets, for beggars. Why does the video feature no posh homes, fancy cars, swish malls or Twitter trolls?

This one-sided representation of a rich and diverse life though is hardly Coldplay’s problem alone. In its long history of music and cinema, India’s film industry has been among the worst offenders when it comes to depicting members of other cultures and races.

In the 1983 film Souten, Shreeram Lagoo played the role of a Dalit character named Gopal, whose low caste was depicted through the use of blackface and a smarmy, grovelling personality.

In the biopic on Mary Kom’s life, the medal-winning Manipuri boxer was played by Punjabi actress Priyanka Chopra – because Chopra’s mainstream appeal would translate to box office success in a way that a lesser known (but perhaps equally talented) Manipuri actress would not be able to. When Indian characters travel or live abroad in Hindi cinema, they too reduce entire countries to a set of cultural clichés: Spain is a flamenco dance off, a bull run and the tomatina festival. If we routinely stereotype every place that’s not an Indian city, and every person that’s not a North Indian Punjabi, why can’t Coldplay’s “tribute video” do the same?

Here’s are just a few examples of Indians at their xenophobic best, your playlist for the weekend:

1. Helen Jairag Richardson dances before a man in blackface, held in a cage:

2.  Priyanka Chopra hits rock bottom when she realizes she has slept with a black man

3. Badan Mein Chandni – and more black face

4. An Anil Kapoor and Sridevi double whammy with blackface and geisha-make up, singing a song about cannibalism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfkv6NWrxhM

5. More Sridevi with Indian dancers in Afros

6. John Abraham and Akshay Kumar treat a bunch of white women like oversexed props

Nishita Jha is a freelance journalist and a New India Foundation fellow.

From Ethnicity to Power Play, the Drama in Arunachal Pradesh Has it All

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday on the imposition of President’s rule by the Centre in Arunachal Pradesh

Kalikho Pul, a minister in Arunachal Pradesh whose allegations about financial mismanagement set off a Constitutional crisis. Credit: PTI

Kalikho Pul, a minister in Arunachal Pradesh whose allegations about financial mismanagement set off a Constitutional crisis. Credit: PTI

The NDA Government may have given Arunachal Pradesh a powerful presence in the Home Ministry through Kiren Rijiju but the North-eastern state, by and large, has always been distant – both from the gaze of national politics, cutting across party lines and also of the national media. After all, with just two Lok Sabha seats, how important can a state be in the prevailing politics where numbers matter?

But suddenly, in the past week or so, that remote state has been getting front page attention in national newspapers and on television channels. All thanks to an ongoing ugly face-off between the State Chief Minister Nabam Tuki and the Governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa and the Centre invoking President’s Rule last Tuesday. Both sides are now awaiting the Supreme Court’s hearing on the matter this coming Monday to know whose stand is Constitutional and whose is not.

While waiting for Monday, one can look back at the scaling up of the showdown, which, interestingly, has quite a few dimensions to it – from ethnic to financial to sheer power play — between the Centre and the State, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.

A former Chief Secretary of Assam, Rajkhowa was sent to Arunachal in June last year as its Governor. A delicate state bordering Myanmar and Tibet which has in its list of ex-governors retired Army generals, former foreign secretaries and a former RAW director (There were some politicians too in between), the selection of Rajkhowa (an IAS officer of the 1968 batch) was significant.

“Apart from the fact that a bureaucrat was sent to the border state after two governorships of former army generals, Rajkhowa was the first from the North-east to become the Arunachal Governor, someone who speaks a language (Assamese) that most Arunachalis understand. This makes the showdown all the more unfortunate,” points out New Delhi-based journalist and North-east commentator, Kishalay Bhattacharjee.

Ill-timed selection

However, the fact remains that from the ethnic angle, Rajkhowa’s selection was ill-timed. He took over Raj Bhavan at a time when the border dispute between Assam and Arunachal was in a heightened state, with incidents of violence lacing it, leading many Arunachali politicians across party lines to doubt his “devotion” to the state for being an Assamese.

Says Jarpum Gamlin, a State BJP member and the Editor of The Eastern Sentinel, “Many disgruntled Congress and BJP members did want a change of Governorship as Lt. General (Retd.) Nirbhaya Sharma was being looked at as too soft on Tuki and his corrupt ways. However, Arunachalis were unhappy at Rajkhowa’s selection because of his Assamese roots. Because, for us, settling the border dispute between the two states has been more important than the issue of the McMahon Line with China.”

In May-end last year, Gamlin expressed that “public anger” in an article for a Delhi-based online news website, saying, “Besides being a former bureaucrat, he (Rajkhowa) is a celebrated and influential litterateur in Assam but is an unknown entity to the Arunachalis.” In a report sent in January by Rajkhowa to the Centre to argue that there has been a constitutional breakdown in the state, he did mention his “Assamese roots” being targeted, apparently by Tuki-sponsored protesters.

However, on looking back at Rajkhowa’s two predecessors – Lt. General (retd.) Nirbhaya Sharma and General (retd.) J.J. Singh it is clear that the state’s leaders had problems with them too, even if they were not “ethnic” ones. In that article, Gamlin touched upon it, “There were anecdotes of how Singh attempted to treat a full-fledged state like a union territory by summoning cabinet review meetings at the Raj Bhawan during his initial days, thereby causing heartburn among lawmakers.” About Sharma, he wrote, “He shall be remembered as a gentleman but also as one who failed to guide a chief minister, a failed mentor who could not create a performing team.”

Rajkhowa, however, soon overcame his ethnic disadvantage with the disgruntled politicians of the state by reaching out to them, which, according to an Itanagar-based journalist who wanted to remain unidentified, “was part of an action plan by the Centre.” He began “getting involved with the opposition and ruling party members’ allegations of financial bungling by Tuki and began writing letters to the CM asking questions.”

Financial indiscipline 

The political problems that the Governor supposedly began stoking, go back to November 2014, when Tuki’s Health Minister Kalikho Pul — he was elected the Leader of the House in that famous assembly session in a community hall on December 16 — began accusing him of “serious financial indiscipline”.

“I was Arunachal’s Finance Minister for over 14 years under four Chief Ministers. But never have I seen such fiscal indiscipline. Since 2013, Tuki Government has been taking overdrafts from the Reserve Bank of India. It led RBI to order State Bank of India a couple of times to stop payment to the state. It stopped the salaries to Government employees for months together, also scholarships to poor students,” Pul said to The Wire.

“The total overdraft since 2013 comes to Rs.1294 crores. The Government has to repay the amount to RBI with 13 per cent interest, a huge sum for a non-revenue generating state,” he adds.

The outstanding amount, he states, “is going to affect the state’s next budget. Under the 14th Finance Commission, Arunachal is to get Rs.7200 crores from which the debt amount will get deducted. But the Government has already spent over Rs.6000 crores from that amount under the non-plan head.” 

Pul, along with some Congress members approached the state Government, the then Governor and the Congress high command on the issue “but they refused to listen to me. Instead, I was dismissed from the Cabinet in December 2014,” he says. He went to Rajkhowa because he “wanted him to act on the financial bungling, and not because I was hoping that he will make me the next Chief Minister.”

According to Gamlin, “Rajkhowa wrote 18 letters to Tuki and didn’t get reply to any.” Alongside writing letters to Tuki, he was writing to the Centre too. Since September last year, he reportedly sent over 15 notes on the state’s “law and order” issues.

In one of those notes, Rajkhowa also accused Tuki of “indulging in corruption”. A Guwahati-based senior journalist who also prefers anonymity, though points out, “Across party lines, Arunachal has been one of the most corrupt states not only in the NE but in the entire country. After all, where do you find a deputy CM’s private house with a helipad and a football ground because his son has to train in the game? But what is surprising is that Centre is suddenly seeing it as a reason to clamp President’s Rule.”

As per the Governor’s counsel Satya Pal Jain’s January 27 deposition to the SC, another reason cited by Rajkhowa in a four-page report to the Centre, was that “Tuki was engaging with NSCN (K), a banned outfit.”

“The Governor’s reference to the armed militia, NSCN, is not new. The politician-militant nexus in parts is well known by the people and the Centre and this can’t be a reason for this sudden proclamation of President’s Rule in the state,” says Bhattacharjee.

Governor’s cow reference mocked

Among all the Governor’s reasons, the one that got the most attention was a “cow slaughter” incident cited as a sign of law and order collapse in Arunachal. He was mocked, particularly in the social media, first for calling the state animal, the Mithun (a bovine), a cow and secondly, for raising “a non-issue” as the Mithun is reared in the state mainly for meat. Also, cow slaughter in Arunachal is not banned.

Says Pul, “The way it was done was offensive. Mithun is a sacred animal for us, sacrificed with religious rituals. But what happened in front of Raj Bhawan on December 17 was political. It was a violent mob of 100 to 200 people led by the Home Minister T. Byaling and two other Cabinet Ministers who sacrificed the animal to intimidate the Governor. If the Home Minister is involved in such activities, how can the police act?” Reportedly, the Governor sent his first categorical request to clamp President’s rule in the State just after that incident.

While both Pul and Tuki are now camping in New Delhi waiting for the SC verdict on Monday, Gamlin told The Wire, “Pul and his supporters are not as smart as Tuki is, who has successfully turned the attention from the corruption charges against him into a bitter Congress-BJP fight.” 

Why the Calorie is Broken

Calories consumed minus calories burned: it’s the simple formula for weight loss or gain. But dieters often find that it doesn’t work. Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley of Gastropod investigate.

Calories consumed minus calories burned: it’s the simple formula for weight loss or gain. But dieters often find that it doesn’t work.

© Catherine Losing

© Catherine Losing

“For me, a calorie is a unit of measurement that’s a real pain in the rear.”

Bo Nash is 38. He lives in Arlington, Texas, where he’s a technology director for a textbook publisher. And he’s 5’10” and 245 lbs – which means he is classed as obese.

In an effort to lose weight, Nash uses an app to record the calories he consumes and a Fitbit band to track the energy he expends. These tools bring an apparent precision: Nash can quantify the calories in each cracker crunched and stair climbed. But when it comes to weight gain, he finds that not all calories are equal. How much weight he gains or loses seems to depend less on the total number of calories, and more on where the calories come from and how he consumes them. The unit, he says, has a “nebulous quality to it”.

Tara Haelle is also obese. She had her second son on St Patrick’s Day in 2014, and hasn’t been able to lose the 70 lbs she gained during pregnancy. Haelle is a freelance science journalist, based in Illinois. She understands the science of weight loss, but, like Nash, doesn’t see it translate into practice. “It makes sense from a mathematical and scientific and even visceral level that what you put in and what you take out, measured in the discrete unit of the calorie, should balance,” says Haelle. “But it doesn’t seem to work that way.”

Nash and Haelle are in good company: more than two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese. For many of them, the cure is diet: one in three are attempting to lose weight in this way at any given moment. Yet there is ample evidence that diets rarely lead to sustained weight loss. These are expensive failures. This inability to curb the extraordinary prevalence of obesity costs the United States more than $147 billion in healthcare, as well as $4.3 billion in job absenteeism and yet more in lost productivity.

At the heart of this issue is a single unit of measurement – the calorie – and some seemingly straightforward arithmetic. “To lose weight, you must use up more calories than you take in,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dieters like Nash and Haelle could eat all their meals at McDonald’s and still lose weight, provided they burn enough calories, says Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. “Really, that’s all it takes.”

But Nash and Haelle do not find weight control so simple. And part of the problem goes way beyond individual self-control. The numbers logged in Nash’s Fitbit, or printed on the food labels that Haelle reads religiously, are at best good guesses. Worse yet, as scientists are increasingly finding, some of those calorie counts are flat-out wrong – off by more than enough, for instance, to wipe out the calories Haelle burns by running an extra mile on a treadmill. A calorie isn’t just a calorie. And our mistaken faith in the power of this seemingly simple measurement may be hindering the fight against obesity.

§

© Catherine Losing

© Catherine Losing

The process of counting calories begins in an anonymous office block in Maryland. The building is home to the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, a facility run by the US Department of Agriculture. When we visit, the kitchen staff are preparing dinner for people enrolled in a study. Plastic dinner trays are laid out with meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn, brown bread, a chocolate-chip scone, vanilla yoghurt and a can of tomato juice. The staff weigh and bag each item, sometimes adding an extra two-centimetre sliver of bread to ensure a tray’s contents add up to the exact calorie requirements of each participant. “We actually get compliments about the food,” says David Baer, a supervisory research physiologist with the Department.

The work that Baer and colleagues do draws on centuries-old techniques. Nestle traces modern attempts to understand food and energy back to a French aristocrat and chemist named Antoine Lavoisier. In the early 1780s, Lavoisier developed a triple-walled metal canister large enough to house a guinea pig. Inside the walls was a layer of ice. Lavoisier knew how much energy was required to melt ice, so he could estimate the heat the animal emitted by measuring the amount of water that dripped from the canister. What Lavoisier didn’t realise – and never had time to find out; he was put to the guillotine during the Revolution – was that measuring the heat emitted by his guinea pigs was a way to estimate the amount of energy they had extracted from the food they were digesting.

Until recently, the scientists at Beltsville used what was essentially a scaled-up version of Lavoisier’s canister to estimate the energy used by humans: a small room in which a person could sleep, eat, excrete, and walk on a treadmill, while temperature sensors embedded in the walls measured the heat given off and thus the calories burned. (We now measure this energy in calories. Roughly speaking, one calorie is the heat required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius.) Today, those ‘direct-heat’ calorimeters have largely been replaced by ‘indirect-heat’ systems, in which sensors measure oxygen intake and carbon dioxide exhalations. Scientists know how much energy is used during the metabolic processes that create the carbon dioxide we breathe out, so they can work backwards to deduce that, for example, a human who has exhaled 15 litres of carbon dioxide must have used 94 calories of energy.

The facility’s three indirect calorimeters are down the halls from the research kitchen. “They’re basically nothing more than walk-in coolers, modified to allow people to live in here,” physiologist William Rumpler explains as he shows us around. Inside each white room, a single bed is folded up against the wall, alongside a toilet, sink, a small desk and chair, and a short treadmill. A couple of airlocks allow food, urine, faeces and blood samples to be passed back and forth. Apart from these reminders of the room’s purpose, the vinyl-floored, fluorescent-lit units resemble a 1970s dorm room. Rumpler explains that subjects typically spend 24 to 48 hours inside the calorimeter, following a highly structured schedule. A notice pinned to the door outlines the protocol for the latest study:

6:00 to 6:45pm – Dinner,
11:00pm – Latest bedtime, mandatory lights out,
11:00pm to 6:30am – Sleep, remain in bed even if not sleeping.

In between meals, blood tests and bowel movements, calorimeter residents are asked to walk on the treadmill at 3 miles per hour for 30 minutes. They fill the rest of the day with what Rumpler calls “low activity”. “We encourage people to bring knitting or books to read,” he says. “If you give people free hand, you’ll be surprised by what they’ll do inside the chamber.” He tells us that one of his less cooperative subjects smuggled in a bag of M&Ms, and then gave himself away by dropping them on the floor.

Using a bank of screens just outside the rooms, Rumpler can monitor exactly how many calories each subject is burning at any moment. Over the years, he and his colleagues have aggregated these individual results to arrive at numbers for general use: how many calories a 120-lb woman burns while running at 4.0 miles an hour, say, or the calories a sedentary man in his 60s needs to consume every day. It’s the averages derived from thousands of extremely precise measurements that provide the numbers in Bo Nash’s movement tracker and help Tara Haelle set a daily calorie intake target that is based on her height and weight.

Measuring the calories in food itself relies on another modification of Lavoisier’s device. In 1848, an Irish chemist called Thomas Andrews realised that he could estimate calorie content by setting food on fire in a chamber and measuring the temperature change in the surrounding water. (Burning food is chemically similar to the ways in which our bodies break food down, despite being much faster and less controlled.) Versions of Andrews’s ‘bomb calorimeter’ are used to measure the calories in food today. At the Beltsville centre, samples of the meatloaf, mashed potatoes and tomato juice have been incinerated in the lab’s bomb calorimeter. “We freeze-dry it, crush into a powder, and fire it,” says Baer.

Humans are not bomb calorimeters, of course, and we don’t extract every calorie from the food we eat. This problem was addressed at the end of the 19th century, in one of the more epic experiments in the history of nutrition science. Wilbur Atwater, a Department of Agriculture scientist, began by measuring the calories contained in more than 4,000 foods. Then he fed those foods to volunteers and collected their faeces, which he incinerated in a bomb calorimeter. After subtracting the energy measured in the faeces from that in the food, he arrived at the Atwater values, numbers that represent the available energy in each gram of protein, carbohydrate and fat. These century-old figures remain the basis for today’s standards. When Baer wants to know the calories per gram figure for that night’s meatloaf, he corrects the bomb calorimeter results using Atwater values.

§

© Catherine Losing

© Catherine Losing

This entire enterprise, from the Beltsville facility to the numbers on the packets of the food we buy, creates an aura of scientific precision around the business of counting calories. That precision is illusory.

The trouble begins at source, with the lists compiled by Atwater and others. Companies are allowed to incinerate freeze-dried pellets of product in a bomb calorimeter to arrive at calorie counts, though most avoid that hassle, says Marion Nestle. Some use the data developed by Atwater in the late 1800s. But the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also allows companies to use a modified set of values, published by the Department of Agriculture in 1955, that take into account our ability to digest different foods in different ways.

Atwater’s numbers say that Tara Haelle can extract 8.9 calories per gram of fat in a plate of her favourite Tex-Mex refried beans; the modified table shows that, thanks to the indigestibility of some of the plant fibres in legumes, she only gets 8.3 calories per gram. Depending on the calorie-measuring method that a company chooses – the FDA allows two more variations on the theme, for a total of five – a given serving of spaghetti can contain from 200 to 210 calories. These uncertainties can add up. Haelle and Bo Nash might deny themselves a snack or sweat out another few floors on the StairMaster to make sure they don’t go 100 calories over their daily limit. If the data in their calorie counts is wrong, they can go over regardless.

There’s also the issue of serving size. After visiting over 40 US chain restaurants, including Olive Garden, Outback Steak House and PF Chang’s China Bistro, Susan Roberts of Tufts University’s nutrition research centre and colleagues discovered that a dish listed as having, say, 500 calories could contain 800 instead. The difference could easily have been caused, says Roberts, by local chefs heaping on extra french fries or pouring a dollop more sauce. It would be almost impossible for a calorie-counting dieter to accurately estimate their intake given this kind of variation.

Even if the calorie counts themselves were accurate, dieters like Haelle and Nash would have to contend with the significant variations between the total calories in the food and the amount our bodies extract. These variations, which scientists have only recently started to understand, go beyond the inaccuracies in the numbers on the back of food packaging. In fact, the new research calls into question the validity of nutrition science’s core belief that a calorie is a calorie.

Using the Beltsville facilities, for instance, Baer and his colleagues found that our bodies sometimes extract fewer calories than the number listed on the label. Participants in their studies absorbed around a third fewer calories from almonds than the modified Atwater values suggest. For walnuts, the difference was 21 per cent. This is good news for someone who is counting calories and likes to snack on almonds or walnuts: he or she is absorbing far fewer calories than expected. The difference, Baer suspects, is due to the nuts’ particular structure: “All the nutrients – the fat and the protein and things like that – they’re inside this plant cell wall.” Unless those walls are broken down – by processing, chewing or cooking – some of the calories remain off-limits to the body, and thus are excreted rather than absorbed.

Another striking insight came from an attempt to eat like a chimp. In the early 1970s, Richard Wrangham, an anthropologist at Harvard University and author of the book Catching Fire: How cooking made us human, observed wild chimps in Africa. Wrangham attempted to follow the entirely raw diet he saw the animals eating, snacking only on fruit, seeds, leaves, and insects such as termites and army ants. “I discovered that it left me incredibly hungry,” he says. “And then I realised that every human eats their food cooked.”

Wrangham and his colleagues have since shown that cooking unlaces microscopic structures that bind energy in foods, reducing the work our gut would otherwise have to do. It effectively outsources digestion to ovens and frying pans. Wrangham found that mice fed raw peanuts, for instance, lost significantly more weight than mice fed the equivalent amount of roasted peanut butter. The same effect holds true for meat: there are many more usable calories in a burger than in steak tartare. Different cooking methods matter, too. In 2015, Sri Lankan scientists discovered that they could more than halve the available calories in rice by adding coconut oil during cooking and then cooling the rice in the refrigerator.

Wrangham’s findings have significant consequences for dieters. If Nash likes his porterhouse steak bloody, for example, he will likely be consuming several hundred calories less than if he has it well-done. Yet the FDA’s methods for creating a nutrition label do not for the most part account for the differences between raw and cooked food, or pureed versus whole, let alone the structure of plant versus animal cells. A steak is a steak, as far as the FDA is concerned.

Industrial food processing, which subjects foods to extremely high temperatures and pressures, might be freeing up even more calories. The food industry, says Wrangham, has been “increasingly turning our food to mush, to the maximum calories you can get out of it. Which, of course, is all very ironic, because in the West there’s tremendous pressure to reduce the number of calories you’re getting out of your food.” He expects to find examples of structural differences that affect caloric availability in many more foods. “I think there is work here for hundreds and probably thousands of nutritionists for years,” he says.

There’s also the problem that no two people are identical. Differences in height, body fat, liver size, levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and other factors influence the energy required to maintain the body’s basic functions. Between two people of the same sex, weight and age, this number may differ by up to 600 calories a day – over a quarter of the recommended intake for a moderately active woman. Even something as seemingly insignificant as the time at which we eat may affect how we process energy. In one recent study, researchers found that mice fed a high-fat diet between 9am and 5pm gained 28 per cent less weight than mice fed the exact same food across a 24-hour period. The researchers suggested that irregular feedings affect the circadian cycle of the liver and the way it metabolises food, thus influencing overall energy balance. Such differences would not emerge under the feeding schedules in the Beltsville experiments.

Until recently, the idea that genetics plays a significant role in obesity had some traction: researchers hypothesised that evolutionary pressures may have favoured genes that predisposed some people to hold on to more calories in the form of added fat. Today, however, most scientists believe we can’t blame DNA for making us overweight. “The prevalence of obesity started to rise quite sharply in the 1980s,” says Nestle. “Genetics did not change in that ten- or twenty-year period. So genetics can only account for part of it.”

Instead, researchers are beginning to attribute much of the variation to the trillions of tiny creatures that line the coiled tubes inside our midriffs. The microbes in our intestines digest some of the tough or fibrous matter that our stomachs cannot break down, releasing a flow of additional calories in the process. But different species and strains of microbes vary in how effective they are at releasing those extra calories, as well as how generously they share them with their host human.

In 2013, researchers in Jeffrey Gordon’s lab at Washington University tracked down pairs of twins of whom one was obese and one lean. He took gut microbes from each, and inserted them into the intestines of microbe-free mice. Mice that got microbes from an obese twin gained weight; the others remained lean, despite eating the exact same diet. “That was really striking,” said Peter Turnbaugh, who used to work with Gordon and now heads his own lab at the University of California, San Francisco. “It suggested for the first time that these microbes might actually be contributing to the energy that we gain from our diet.”

The diversity of microbes that each of us hosts is as individual as a fingerprint and yet easily transformed by diet and our environment. And though it is poorly understood, new findings about how our gut microbes affect our overall energy balance are emerging almost daily. For example, it seems that medications that are known to cause weight gain might be doing so by modifying the populations of microbes in our gut. In November 2015, researchers showed that risperidone, an antipsychotic drug, altered the gut microbes of mice who received it. The microbial changes slowed the animals’ resting metabolisms, causing them to increase their body mass by 10 per cent in two months. The authors liken the effects to a 30-lb weight gain over one year for an average human, which they say would be the equivalent of an extra cheeseburger every day.

Other evidence suggests that gut microbes might affect weight gain in humans as they do in lab animals. Take the case of the woman who gained more than 40 lbs after receiving a transplant of gut microbes from her overweight teenage daughter. The transplant successfully treated the mother’s intestinal infection of Clostridium difficile, which had resisted antibiotics. But, as of the study’s publication last year, she hadn’t been able to shed the excess weight through diet or exercise. The only aspect of her physiology that had changed was her gut microbes.

All of these factors introduce a disturbingly large margin of error for an individual who is trying, like Nash, Haelle and millions of others, to count calories. The discrepancies between the number on the label and the calories that are actually available in our food, combined with individual variations in how we metabolise that food, can add up to much more than the 200 calories a day that nutritionists often advise cutting in order to lose weight. Nash and Haelle can do everything right and still not lose weight.

None of this means that the calorie is a useless concept. Inaccurate as they are, calorie counts remain a helpful guide to relative energy values: standing burns more calories than sitting; cookies contain more calories than spinach. But the calorie is broken in many ways, and there’s a strong case to be made for moving our food accounting system away from that one particular number. It’s time to take a more holistic look at what we eat.

§

© Catherine Losing

© Catherine Losing

Wilbur Atwater worked in a world with different problems. At the beginning of the 20th century, nutritionists wanted to ensure people were well fed. The calorie was a useful way to quantify a person’s needs. Today, excess weight affects more people than hunger; 1.9 billion adults around the world are considered overweight, 600 million of them obese. Obesity brings with it a higher risk of diabetes, heart disease and cancer. This is a new challenge, and it is likely to require a new metric.

One option is to focus on something other than energy intake. Like satiety, for instance. Picture a 300-calorie slice of cheesecake: it is going to be small. “So you’re going to feel very dissatisfied with that meal,” says Susan Roberts. If you eat 300 calories of a chicken salad instead, with nuts, olive oil and roasted vegetables, “you’ve got a lot of different nutrients that are hitting all the signals quite nicely,” she says. “So you’re going to feel full after you’ve eaten it. That fullness is going to last for several hours.”

As a result of her research, Roberts has created a weight-loss plan that focuses on satiety rather than a straight calorie count. The idea is that foods that help people feel satisfied and full for longer should prevent them from overeating at lunch or searching for a snack soon after cleaning the table. Whole apples, white fish and Greek yoghurt are on her list of the best foods for keeping hunger at bay.

There’s evidence to back up this idea: in one study, Roberts and colleagues found that people lost three times more weight by following her satiety plan compared with a traditional calorie-based one – and kept it off. Harvard nutritionist David Ludwig, who also proposes evaluating food on the basis of satiety instead of calories, has shown that teens given instant oats for breakfast consumed 650 more calories at lunch than their peers who were given the same number of breakfast calories in the form of a more satisfying omelette and fruit. Meanwhile, Adam Drewnowski, a epidemiologist at the University of Washington, has his own calorie upgrade: a nutrient density score. This system ranks food in terms of nutrition per calorie, rather than simply overall caloric value. Dark green vegetables and legumes score highly. Though the details of their approaches differ, all three agree: changing how we measure our food can transform our relationship with it for the better.

Individual consumers could start using these ideas now. But persuading the food industry and its watchdogs, such as the FDA, to adopt an entirely new labelling system based on one of these alternative measures is much more of a challenge. Consumers are unlikely to see the calorie replaced by Roberts’s or Drewnowski’s units on their labels any time soon; nonetheless, this work is an important reminder that there are other ways to measure food, ones that might be more useful for both weight loss and overall health.

Down the line, another approach might eventually prove even more useful: personalised nutrition. Since 2005, David Wishart of the University of Alberta has been cataloguing the hundreds of thousands of chemical compounds in our bodies, which make up what’s known as the human metabolome. There are now 42,000 chemicals on his list, and many of them help digest the food we eat. His food metabolome database is a more recent effort: it contains about 30,000 chemicals derived directly from food. Wishart estimates that both databases may end up listing more than a million compounds. “Humans eat an incredible variety of foods,” he says. “Then those are all transformed by our body. And they’re turned into all kinds of other compounds.” We have no idea what they all are, he adds – or what they do.

According to Wishart, these chemicals and their interactions affect energy balance. He points to research demonstrating that high-fructose corn syrup and other forms of added fructose (as opposed to fructose found in fruit) can trigger the creation of compounds that lead us to form an excess of fat cells, unrelated to additional calorie consumption. “If we cut back on some of these things,” he says, “it seems to revert our body back to more appropriate, arguably less efficient metabolism, so that we aren’t accumulating fat cells in our body.”

It increasingly seems that there are significant variations in the way each one of us metabolises food, based on the tens of thousands – perhaps millions – of chemicals that make up each of our metabolomes. This, in combination with the individuality of each person’s gut microbiome, could lead to the development of personalised dietary recommendations. Wishart imagines a future where you could hold up your smartphone, snap a picture of a dish, and receive a verdict on how that food will affect you as well as how many calories you’ll extract from it. Your partner might receive completely different information from the same dish.

Or maybe the focus will shift to tweaking your microbial community: if you’re trying to lose weight, perhaps you will curate your gut microbiome so as to extract fewer calories without harming your overall health. Peter Turnbaugh cautions that the science is not yet able to recommend a particular set of microbes, let alone how best to get them inside your gut, but he takes comfort from the fact that our microbial populations are “very plastic and very malleable” – we already know that they change when we take antibiotics, when we travel and when we eat different foods. “If we’re able to figure this out,” he says, “there is the chance that someday you might be able to tailor your microbiome” to get the outcomes you want.

None of these alternatives is ready to replace the calorie tomorrow. Yet the need for a new system of food accounting is clear. Just ask Haelle. “I’m kind of pissed at the scientific community for not coming up with something better for us,” she confesses, recalling a recent meltdown at TGI Friday’s as she navigated a confusing datasheet to find a low-calorie dish she could eat. There should be a better metric for people like her and Nash – people who know the health risks that come with being overweight and work hard to counter them. And it’s likely there will be. Science has already shown that the calorie is broken. Now it has to find a replacement.

This article first appeared on Mosaic and is republished here under a Creative Commons licence.

The Gujarat Government’s Attempt to Target a Police Officer Has Backfired, Badly

In exonerating Rahul Sharma and criticising the government for wrongfully targeting the former police officer, the CAT has shone a spotlight on the state’s lack of interest in punishing the perpetrators of the 2002 riots.

In exonerating Rahul Sharma and criticising the government for wrongfully targeting the former police officer, the CAT has shone a spotlight on the state’s lack of interest in punishing the perpetrators of the 2002 riots.

Rahul Sharma police officer

File photo of Rahul Sharma in police uniform, before he took early retirement in 2015.

“And now to add insult to injury, a charge sheet is issued to an officer who had apparently aided the cause of truth. Have not the words ‘Satyameva Jayate’ no meaning?”

This is the conclusion reached by the Central Administrative Tribunal (Ahmedabad Bench) in its judgment quashing the departmental charge sheet against the retired Indian Police Service officer Rahul Sharma. The charges stemmed from the Gujarat government’s attempt to take action against him for having submitted incriminating call data records from Ahmedabad during the period of the 2002 riots before the Nanavati Commission of Inquiry.

The trumped up charge against Sharma fell somewhere between destruction of evidence and its fabrication but lacked any substance and failed to withstand proper scrutiny. But though the Gujarat government failed to make out a case against the police officer, its ham-handed efforts at persecuting him for actually trying to serve the cause of justice  will only strengthen the suspicion that it has something to hide.

It was a matter of record that the police had sought the records of all calls made from Ahmedabad by certain individuals during the relevant period. However, this information was subsequently ‘misplaced’. Much to the consternation of the Gujarat government – which was headed by Narendra Modi as chief minister at the time – it turned out that Rahul Sharma, who had received a set of the CDRs, kept a copy, analysed them and produced this data before the Nanavati Commission.

Targeted for telling the truth

Call data records (or call detail records, as they are sometimes referred to) are an increasingly important part of criminal investigation as they not only show who was in contact with whom but also the general location of a person at any given point of time. This helps investigators and courts establish physical locations and movements.

The Gujarat government sought to attack the unexpected emergence of this evidence in two ways. First, it alleged that Rahul Sharma had fabricated the call data records – an allegation which could not pass muster as there was no indication of fabrication and the government, in fact, did not ever dare to prosecute him for fabricating evidence as that would have led to even greater focus on the call records. This was the reason for the second line of attack – that the originals had been ‘misplaced’ or ‘lost’ and because Rahul Sharma had obtained a copy of the same he should be held responsible for the loss of the original.

This was the specious reasoning on which the departmental chargesheet was based. To simplify the Gujarat government’s case, they admitted losing the crucial evidence and then sought to blame the police officer who was actually able to produce a copy of the same. The importance of the CDRs was realised by the Nanavati Commission in its report and is also a crucial piece of evidence in ongoing trials relating to the riots.

The CAT, in its judgment, has come down harshly on the Gujarat government and has held not only that its actions against Sharma were motivated by “malice in law”, but that the state government has, in attacking the sanctity of the evidence produced by Sharma, done a great disservice to the cause of justice and public good. It has noted that if Rahul Sharma were to be blamed for the loss of the original CDs, then other officers who dealt with the original information received should also have been questioned and prosecuted. Needless to say, not one question was raised against any other officer.

The judgment of the tribunal makes for interesting read as the bench tries to make sense of the government’s case against Sharma.

In fact, the case against him was so insensible that the CAT was forced to speculate on the actual content of the allegations against Sharma. The bench wondered, “Is it obtainment of the CD – that cannot be because the request for the CD has gone to the mobile service providers before the applicant has come into the scene. Unless somebody has told him about it, there is no possibility of him to come to know about this. If we assume that someone lower in the totem-pole had informed him, that would not have stopped Shri S.S. Chudasama from trying to access it again from the service provider unless he knew positively that the CDs have been handed over to Rahul Sharma. But had it been so and since the CDs were very important Shri Chudasama would try again to get a copy or ask Shri Rahul Sharma in one of the meetings.”

The bench then speculates on whether the government has a case against Sharma because of suspicion that he had fabricated these call data records but concludes, “If we extend our enquiry a little more further, nothing prevented the state from claiming fabrication of documents if it had a case following examination by its own Forensic Science Laboratory that fabricated evidence had been tendered by the Commissions process, the stipulation under Sections 193-195 of Cr. PC could have been adverted to by the state government at that time itself and having not done so, the only presumption available is that (1) the CD is genuine (2) the CD is relevant and (3) it is placed before the Commission during the cross examination for which the applicant had been legitimately and legally summoned and through the process of follow up action of the Commission, the relevance of [the] compact disks” has been established.

There was no other conclusion for the bench but the one that they have reached. The government of Gujarat tried to bully and victimise an honest police officer. The bench asks itself, “What is an honest police officer supposed to do, in the circumstances? In which direction should his loyalty lie?”

Call Data Records are seen as crucial and incontrovertible evidence and are extremely hard to doctor. Once this information is received, it cannot be changed and has all the weight of modern technology and automatic information generation to support it. This is what has prompted the CAT to wonder about the state government’s obduracy in belittling the evidence produced by Rahul Sharma. The judgment observes, “Had the CDs been put to good use, the actual offenders would have been apprehended and the issue of conspiracy as alleged in the pleadings could have been set at naught. Why this great opportunity is given a go bye was not explained by the state in the pleading or in the hearing.”

‘Malice and illegality’

This is not only an indictment of the Gujarat government’s handling of Rahul Sharma but of that government’s utter failure in implementing the rule of law. The judgment concludes that the government’s action “is tainted by mischief, mala fides and malice and coloured by arbitrariness, illegality and designed to defeat proximate and pertinent matters blessed by constitutional compulsion and designed as an engine of oppression.” These are unusually strong words which cannot, and should not, be ignored.

Rahul Sharma, who took voluntary retirement from the IPS in 2015 after constant harassment by the state government, is one of the many upstanding officers targeted by the Gujarat government. A similar chargesheet against Kuldip Sharma was quashed in 2011. The CAT and other courts are hearing many other cases in which the Gujarat government’s actions against its own police officers have been questioned. That all these police officers have taken actions that are considered inimical to the interests of BJP and Gujarat government leaders cannot be considered a mere coincidence.

In fact, the pattern continues. On January 12 this year, i.e. much after Rahul Sharma’s retirement, he has been served with another show-cause notice for asking the government to make an “unnecessary payment” of Rs. 3,000  because he asked his driver and gunman to stay back in Gandhinagar in February 2012 while he was on sanctioned leave. The other charge in this show-cause notice pertains to delay in payment by him for using his government vehicle for a personal trip. To clarify, the charge is not of illegally using the vehicle but for delayed reimbursement. The absurdity and pettiness of these charges is obvious to anybody, let alone the fact that if this is the worst that a vengeful Gujarat government can find against him, it just shows that Rahul Sharma is indeed an honest officer who has nothing to hide. Can the same be said about those who are targeting him?

Sarim Naved is a Delhi-based advocate