SCRUBBING THE MIRROR DOESN'T HELP.

Posted: 15.03.2026.

(This piece was published in THE TRIBUNE, Chandigarh, on 15.03.2026, with some minor editing)

The smell of censorship hangs heavily over Delhi these days, enveloping two books, one for perhaps containing official secrets, the other for calling a spade a spade. It's a theater of the absurd, and brings to mind that well-worn World War II anecdote: a man, who publicly called Churchill a fool, was promptly arrested. Opposition MPs in Parliament protested that England was becoming a police state where free speech was being curbed. Churchill clarified that the man was being proceeded against, not because he had called the Prime Minister a fool, but for revealing a state secret! Unfortunately, this sense of humour is missing in our institutions, having been replaced long ago by a sense of righteousness and entitlement.

We will probably never know what official secrets General Naravane's book contains that prompted this government to disallow its publication or even a discussion in Parliament. But it's the furore over the other book, a Class VIII text book on Social Sciences published by NCERT, that is more disturbing and warrants a deeper reflection. Does Churchill's quip about revealing a state secret apply to it?

I for one was shocked at the sheer ferocity of the Supreme Court's reaction when some lawyers brought the book to its notice. The CJI  dubbed it "a calculated move to undermine and overawe the judiciary", to "demean the dignity of the judiciary", a " deep rooted conspiracy". He called for a "deeper probe", adding for good measure that no one would be spared and that "heads must roll.". He refused to accept the Center's or the NCERT apologies. The three academics who wrote the chapter have been blacklisted and debarred from any future engagement by any govt. institution or university.The book was banned instantly and a Sidney Sheldon type investigation launched to trace all of the 38 copies of the book sold so far- I believe about 20 of them have been retrieved, the remaining continue to pose a grave threat to our democracy, like a hidden time bomb.

From material in the public domain, one has been able to glean that this was a new book on Social Sciences for Class VIII, it contained a chapter entitled "The Role of the Judiciary in our Society." The offending part, it is reported, was a sub-chapter called "Corruption in the Judiciary." It attributes delays in the dispensation of justice to factors such as inadequate number of judges, complex legal procedures, poor infrastructure and corruption. It is this latter part which appears to have invited the Court's ire, even though 9 out of 10 Indians would agree with these conclusions.

Moreover, the book is certainly not targeting the judiciary, as the Court appears to believe. It also criticizes other organs of the state. As THE HINDU writes in an editorial: the problem with the SC ban "is not that the textbook selectively targets the judiciary, it is that the judiciary selectively targets certain portions."

Let's not gloss over the reality- corruption has been part of our culture from time immemorial, regularly reinforced by every element of our establishment. It would be a fantasy to expect the judiciary to be an outlier on, or an exception to, this. Data presented in Parliament in February shows that between 2016 and 2025, 8600 complaints were filed against sitting judges. In 2011 Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High Court was impeached on corruption charges: he resigned before he could be impeached, but he was never prosecuted. In 2018 Justice RK Mittal, a Tribunal judge, was sacked in a corruption case. The case of Justice Yashwant Verma, in whose official house crores of unexplained cash were allegedly found just last year is nowhere near resolution and he continues in service. More instances can be found in the book A CONTROVERSIAL JUDGE (2025) by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Ayaskant Das. India ranks 79th out of 143 countries in the Rule of Law Index (2024), that is, we are in the bottom half. Surely, the factors listed in the NCERT book may have something to do with this?

  An issue which strikes at the very roots of judicial probity should be confronted head-on if we wish to resolve it, and not brushed under the carpet. As Prashant Bhushan says: "Judiciary is not above scrutiny and is accountable to the people..... Reference to judicial corruption and delays in the NCERT curriculum is in keeping with the constitutional values of transparency and accountability." In fact, advocate and eminent legal scholar Gautam Bhatia has questioned whether Article 19 of the Constitution even empowers the Supreme Court to ban a book. It is unfortunate that the Court has decided to take this route; the CJI's assurance that this "is not meant to stifle any criticism" sadly does not inspire much confidence. There has already been much redacting and sanitisation of NCERT textbooks by this government and we could do without more. Education should prepare our youth for entering this harsh and imperfect world, not gloss over its defects under a coat of judicial enamel paint. A celebrated poet had already said this, centuries ago:

" Umra bhar Ghalib yehi bhool karta raha

Dhool chehre pe thi, aina saaf karta raha."

[Your entire life Ghalib you repeated this error

The dust was on your face but you kept wiping the mirror.]

INDIAN RAILWAYS -- RUNNING LATE FOR 2047 ?

 I've said it before and I'll say it again for the doubtful benefit of this hearing impaired government- putting old wine in new bottles doesn't change the wine for the better. A prime example of this is the Indian Railways, their slew of hyped up new trains- Vande Bharat, Tejas, Namo Bharat, etc.- and the claim that it has transformed the way Indians travel. It hasn't, it's just made it more expensive.

Last month I had to go to my hometown, Kanpur, to revitalise my withering roots and decided to travel by the Delhi-Varanasi Vande Bharat, touted as the last word in luxury, speed and punctuality (my first time on a VB). It was none of these. The fallacy started unravelling at Platform 16 of the New Delhi Station itself, where I arrived at 2.30 PM (departure time was 3.00 PM). The train arrived two hours late and left two and a half hours late-at 5.20 PM. So much for punctuality. Worse, there was no sharing of information with the hundreds of waiting passengers- merely a bored announcement every now and then that the train "is delayed by 15 minutes." (It was always 15 minutes, not a minute less or a minute more).This announcement of delays by instalments (on the airlines pattern) is inexplicable in this age of real time information when a train's actual location can be tracked minute by minute. Why not share it with the passengers who had trusted your bloated hype? And isn't it ironical that the Railway Minister is also the IT Minister but the Railways don't know where their train is at any given moment?

The stranded passengers were treated like dirt (again, on the airlines model) in other ways too. They had to stand on their feet for two hours- there were barely half a dozen dirty benches on the platform for more than a thousand; if there were old, or sick or disabled, that was just too bad, they were collateral damage on the country's journey to vishwaguru status. The platform, where India's most (allegedly) magnificent train was to arrive, resembled a Sadar Bazaar trading yard. Every now and then a cop would come and shoo them away for causing overcrowding!- where were they supposed to go?

[Passengers at NDRS waiting for the Vande Bharat doors to open. The similarity to a cattle yard is coincidental. Photo by Atul Shukla]

It was no better inside the train (when it finally arrived): the entrance foyer was jammed with all kinds of food cartons, garbage bags and crates of bottled water. The toilets were awash like Niagra Falls. The meals showed the effects of privatisation at its worst- packets of "chura" of unknown origin, a soft drink, something which was said to be tea and a moldy piece of cake; we added up their printed MRPs, which came to Rs. 50/, though IRCTC must have got them at least at 25% less through the lowest tender process. The passengers, however, paid Rs. 80/ each- another proof of how rapidly the railways are moving on to the airline model. The train's maximum speed (displayed on an LED screen above the doors) never exceeded 128 kmph, and that too for very short periods, so much for its high-speed boast of 180 kmph.

The worst, however was to come on the return trip when we disgorged from the train at the New Delhi Railway station at 11.00 PM. Complete pandemonium prevailed on the Ajmeri Gate side exit- no proper lanes for cars, no separate lanes for taxis, no identified points for boarding or deboarding: these are all standard requirements/facilities at any railway station in any developed country. The result was total chaos- hundred of passengers rushing around, blocking traffic, to find their ordered Olas and Ubers, vehicles parked any which way. It took us more than 45 minutes (one fifth the journey time from Kanpur on the train!) to locate our Ola and exit the station. I shudder to think what would have been the fate of the old, the disabled, ladies travelling alone and foreign tourists unaccustomed to our bureaucracy who had swallowed the fable of "Athiti Deva Bhav." I longed wistfully for the Shatabdi days, when one just went to the pre-paid taxi/ auto rickshaw booths managed by police, paid the fare, and were allotted a taxi/auto without any fuss or the danger of being run over.

So here's the low-down. Today's trumpeted trains are no better-probably worse- than our earlier Shatabdis and Rajdhanis which made no tall claims but delivered more than they promised. All this hype of high-speed trains is just that- false hype. We may have the technical capacity to build such trains, but we lack the administrative and policy-making ability to operate them as they should. Reasons?- lack of infrastructure: tracks, signaling and communication systems, skilling of staff, catering, station management, accountability. The Railways' planning model is faulty and has been stood on its head: instead of planning from the top down it should be doing the reverse- upgrade the infrastructure to developed countries level first and THEN introduce the high speed trains.

Most important- treat your paying passenger with respect and consideration. Travel is not just about speed, it's a package of various experiences. The Railway's responsibility does not end on the platform- it has to develop proper station infrastructure, both inside and outside, ensure systems that enable a passenger to enter and exit a station in an orderly manner, with convenience and safety. Dial down the hype and dial up the delivery. It's a long, long way to 2047, Mr. Minister, a much more difficult journey than the three-piece suit hop to Davos. 

AN INDIAN VIEW OF THE EPSTEIN FILES- WE ARE LIKE THIS ONLY.

 

Epstein who? Emails-when? Meetings-where?

Every era produces its own prophets, who inscribe their wisdom on our digital walls; the year 1 AE (After Epstein) is no different. A friend has just forwarded to me this priceless diagnosis of what ails us: When faced with temptation, wise people abstain. The others Epstein. This single digit sentence explains what the Epstein Files are all about, and why a pedophile, sex-trafficking celebrity, long dead, is causing so much churning in the capitals of the neoliberal world (and in India, which is neither neo nor liberal). Here are the titbits (is that the appropriate word?)  which I have gleaned so far from this affair.

One hears that Mr. Vivek Agnihotri, the film Director so beloved of the BJP, is a very angry and worried man these days. He has lost his IPR and franchise of the word "Files"; his Kashmir Files, Bengal Files and Kerala Files had an authoritative ring about them, for are files not the repository of truth within the government ? But he no longer has the "personality rights" on this word  for it has been hijacked by Epstein and Pam Bondi and henceforth will convey, not pseudo-nationalism and Islamophobia, but sex, sleaze and betrayal- a more exciting batter, I agree, but not one which can garner votes. Mr Agnihotri will now have to look for a new word for "Files": may I suggest "Lies" or "Fakery" or "Fibs" ?

The world's glitterati- the Davos types, politicians, marquee actors and singers, the fixers, fashionistas, sheikhs and sultans- who cannot bear to be out of the news for even a day, are faced with a horrific quandary: which is worse- being mentioned in the Epstein files or not being mentioned in them? (Remember Oscar Wilde: The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about?) The former can lead to social disapprobation, dismissal, law suits and even worse; the latter would be a living death, for it would be final proof that they are non-entities, that they never mattered, were not important enough to be honey-trapped. For some the wretched choice has already been made- Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, Lord Mandelson, the President of the WEF, the Swedish Chief of UNHCR, an ex Chief of the CIA. The elite in India too is holding its breath, poring over every new list of emails through their Cartier or Maybach looking glasses to see if their names (or, God forbid, their photo!) are there. But the common man-i.e. 99% of India- is not bothered: he's busy full time in checking if his name is on the voter's list. This is Mr. Gyanesh Kumar's stellar contribution to limiting the impact of the Epstein story within our shores! Thank you, sir.

But we have two shining stars (or potential asteroids for Mr. Modi) from India who have the distinction of having made it to the Epstein short-list: one a Minister who has anger management issues and a failing memory for number of meetings held and emails sent, the other a Captain of industry who, to continue with the cricketing analogy, has a weakness for the fine leg, especially if it is attached to a tall, blonde Norwegian of the opposite sex (if the emails are right). Right now the two are being pilloried by Rahul Gandhi in Parliament, quite unjustly, in my view. For one was promoting Digital India (even before it was conceived!) and the other building our Vishwaguru status globally, all undercover (or covers), of course; if the price of these laudable objectives involved enjoying the hospitality of a convicted sex predator or a massage or two, so be it. It was all for King and country, wasn't it, in the finest traditions of Lawrence of Arabia, Kim Philby, Mata Hari and James Bond, to mention just a few. All done at their own expense and time. Never have so many owed so much (in crypto, of course) to so few! Methinks, a Padma Bhushan or two would be in order here.

Finally, it must be said the Epstein Files is no respecter of reputations. One mail mentions our very own globally acclaimed wellness guru, Deepak Chopra, who dispenses advice (at very steep rates) to CEO's about how to view life. But per one released mail he has reserved his most penetrating observation for Mr. Epstein: 

"God is a construct, cute girls are real." 

In other words, what you see (in that Manhattan flat or Virgin Islands resort) is what you get, so grab it (or her). Forget about God! A cutie in the hand is worth a deity in the bush ! No wonder the man has made millions.

Even His Holiness the Dalai Lama appears to have been dragged into this controversy needlessly, with Chinese social media alleging that he had met Epstein, in an apparent attempt to discredit him after his Grammy win earlier this month. The Dalai Lama's office has issued a strong contradiction and condemnation of these planted posts. I am sure no sane person would believe this Chinese canard. But it must have been a close call for His Holiness's advisors, and a difficult choice- should they ignore this Chinese slander, or should they condemn it ? This is what I would call being on the horns of a dalailama.

And while Heads of Government all over the world are speaking on the Files, ordering inquiries and sacking people, in India there is total silence. The Prime Minister only speaks during election times, his hangers on cannot speak of anything except Rahul Gandhi's ancestors, and the media is still fighting the Sindoor war with Pakistan and discussing the bisexuality of Babur. The country has become one vast black hole from which no light can emerge. But if you listen carefully, you'll hear a protesting voice emanating from that hole: "What! Me resign? But I was ambushed!"

We are like this only, folks. Satyamev Jayate.

BUDGET 2026-27: WHAT ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT, MADAM FINANCE MINISTER ?

Preservation and protection of the natural environment has never been a priority in our annual Budgets; ALL Finance Ministers have taken it for granted and have treated it as an infinite resource rather than a living entity to be nurtured and carefully harvested on a sustainable basis. In July 2014 I had written a blog on these pages about precisely this: Budget 2014- Shortchanging the Environment. Eleven years down the line this catastrophic deficiency in planning persists, even though a new, and compelling, dimension has been added now with the acceleration of Climate Change (CC). The need now is, not only to provide public funding for measures to counter CC (adaptation, mitigation) but also for rehabilitation of those directly affected by it- poor farmers, landless labourers, fishermen, nomadic tribes. Unfortunately (and predictably) this Budget, like its predecessors, does none of this.

We should perhaps have expected this from the tone of the Economic Survey 2026, released a couple of weeks earlier. In it, the Chief Economic Advisor blatantly bats for growth and neo-capitalism at the cost of the environment. Defying all science, he states that cutting carbon emissions should not be our top priority, and that "a 3*Celsius world would be a liveable one"(!) Confounding all evidence and scientific global consensus, he goes on to maintain that "growth and prosperity strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability.." Yes, sir, they do, but only if  done in a sustainable and ecologically friendly manner, which is not how it is happening in India. Maybe, if the Economic Advisor had paid more attention to what a fellow economist (without any political bias), Gita Gopinath, had said in Davos, he would have better understood the problem, and how wrong he is. 

This government suffers from a severe case of CID (Compulsive Infrastructure Disorder); Capex is fine and needed for growth, but so is the environment. There are huge environmental costs to rapid infrastructural expansion- both the World Bank and the IMF estimate this at between 3.5%-5% of our GDP, which comes to about USD 200 billion or 1800000 crore rupees. 

The 2026-27 budget proudly mentions the creation of a mineral corridor (for rare earths) in four southern states, three more high-speed rail corridors, zero duties for maritime catches in India's EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) or the high seas, tax exemptions for setting up data centers, but there is no mention of how the environmental consequences of these initiatives shall be addressed or mitigation of them funded. Are these corridors necessary at all, given the large number of expressways being built all over the country? The corridors shall lead to large scale land acquisition and displacement of populations, adding to the 60 million project refugees already created since Independence. Hundreds of thousands of trees (and mangroves, since rare earths are found in large quantities in coastal areas) shall be felled. The boost to maritime fisheries is welcome, but where are the guard rails to ensure that the livelihoods of traditional fishermen will be protected and not replaced by mechanised trawlers or that measures shall be taken to curb overfishing? The data centers require humongous quantities of power and water- where will they come from in this water stressed country?

The damage to the environment by the various corridors will be enormous, as pointed out above. The dilution of the regulations that could have checked this, or compensated for it, such as the Forest Conservation Act, the Environmental Protection Act, the Wildlife Protection Act, and the defenestration of the regulatory institutions, have so weakened these checks over the years that we can expect minimum oversight or safeguards in the execution of these projects.

Thousands of crores shall be needed to mitigate, and compensate for, the adverse impacts of these projects, but the Finance Minister has said not a word about this- about who will pay for it and where the funds shall come from. This silence and ambiguity appears to be a deliberate strategy of decentralisation of costs to the states: the political credit and financial gains will accrue to the Center, but the social and budgetary costs will have to be borne by the states from their own resources- an innovative (mis)interpretation of the concept idea of federalism!

Finally, it appears that the 16th Finance Commission is also in lockstep with the central govt. like all so-called autonomous institutions in this country. For it has chosen to completely ignore the right of the Himalayan states to fair compensation for the ecological services they provide to the country (water, clean air, carbon sequestration, climate moderation). These states, supported by a large number of advocacy groups, had demanded a Green Bonus of Rs. 50000 crores over the five year period of 2026-2031. Not only would this have been fair compensation, these funds would have met their developmental needs without having to resort to unsustainable  exploitation of their forests, rivers minerals and tourism potential. Any idiot can see that excessive and unsustainable "development" of the Himalaya (and other mountain ranges like the Aravallis and Western Ghats) is not in the interest of the country as a whole, and that therefore these mountain states should be incentivised not to do so.

But the 16th F.C. failed to see this simple truth. Early reports indicate that it has not provided any Green Bonus; nor has it provided any special grants (outside the Center's discretion, which has now become totally politicised) for climate mitigation or disaster relief. All it has done is tinker with the definition of forests which, in pure financial terms, is meaningless. Even worse, the 16th FC has now discontinued the RDG (Revenue Deficit Grant) which these states had been receiving since 1974, making a huge dent in their finances. They shall now have no option but to continue to ravage the fragile Himalayan environment to fund their development activities.

Whether or not the BJP gains from this year's Budget is a moot question; what is not moot is that the short-sighted neglect of the environment continues unabated in our planning and funding processes. Ms Sitharaman and her co-pilot in the Finance Commission have just nudged us a bit closer to environmental collapse, and the financial collapse of some states.

NOT JUST AQI, WHAT WE NEED IS A BSI ( BULLSHIT INDEX ).

 ONE has always had the highest admiration and respect for Merryll Streep' s acting qualities, graceful beauty and composure. To these qualities I should now add her strong moral conviction and the courage to speak out: her take down of Trump at the recent Golden Globe awards function was something to watch, and won her a standing ovation. (Hopefully our Bollywood marionettes watched it too). But I find that she is also relevant to the India of today: as proof, here is another of her statements:

" Funny thing about getting older, your eyesight starts getting weaker but your ability to see through people's bullshit gets much better."

I can vouch for the fact that never was a truer word spoken: at three score and fifteen, I can no longer spot the prettiest lady in a crowd before Neerja can bat an eyelid  (as I was wont to earlier), and I take quite a few wrong turns on the road as the traffic signs have become as blurred as Mr. Modi's visions for 2047, but give me a piece of bullshit and I can spot it for what it is instantly, through the layers of grandstanding, hypocrisy and ignorance which is the hallmark of our government and ruling classes.

IIT Kanpur got it all wrong when it diagnosed the NCR smog as consisting mainly of vehicle emissions, construction dust and paddy burning. It failed to detect a major ingredient- Bullshit (BS)- whose particles- BS 2.5 by lesser politicos and BS 10 by Ministers- have seen a major increase since 2014. These emissions are usually disguised as droplets of nationalism, religious revivalism or Viksit Bharat slogans. They affect, not the lungs, but the IQ of the residents here, which explains why the BJP keeps winning elections. In fact, I have a theory about this: the lower the IQ of a particular place, the higher its AQI readings. To test this thesis I am now looking for a nerd who can build a  B***S**T Index (BSI).

Readers would be well aware of the blasts of BS sprayed on a regular basis by those who decide the nation's destiny- that there is no connection between air pollution and lung diseases, that 2025 was the "cleanest" year in Delhi's history, that AQI and temperature are one and the same, that the EU trade deal is the "mother of all deals" (which presumably would make the Trade deal with the USA the "mother-in-law" of all deals), that mountains should be defined by height, not their ecological importance, that that those who feed stray dogs should keep them in their homes- the largest adoption programme in the world's history, considering that there are 70 million of these community dogs, that the US SEC's summons could not be served on Adani because it did not have an official stamp, that the globally acclaimed Sonam Wangchuk   is a security threat to India, that we need to take "revenge" for centuries of occupation by outside forces, that it is one Chief Minister's personal mission to hound a minority community and expel six lakhs of them from the state's voter list, that trade unions are responsible for the country's lack of progress. It's a long list, folks, and getting longer with each BJP election victory, which is why the smog keeps getting thicker.

But the mother of all BS 10's was discharged recently by our suave, foreign university educated (MBA, University of Pennsylvania) bureaucrat-turned-billionaire Railway Minister who announced that he was banning the wearing of "bandh gallas" in the Railways because it was a (British) "colonial legacy." Now, generations of IAS officers will agree that the bandhgalla is the nearest they have got to a hangman's noose, that it is an instrument of torture, especially during the summer months. It needs to go, for climatic reasons. But to banish it because it is a colonial vestige reeks of  ignorance and hypocrisy posturing as nationalism and  "desh bhakti". It also indicates that the Hon' Minister suffers from both long and short term memory loss.

He forgot that the "bandhgalla" is not a British invention-it (or a close variant of it) was the formal dress of the Mughal courts and the ruling families of Mewar and Rajasthan; the more showy "achkan" or "sherwani" also belongs to this apparel family. Worse, by landing up in Davos just a week later in a three-piece suit- an indisputably British attire - he not only displayed short term memory loss but also his lack of sincerity about banishing colonialism! 

Did he also forget that the whole system of railways in India was built by the British, replacing the humble bullock-cart, and changing the face of the country? Would he also like to ban (with a little help from the RSS, no doubt) the English language, the University system of education, allopathy, nuclear technology and the watch, sunglasses and pens which adorn our Prime Minister's personage, all products of colonial nations?                                                         Maybe he would like to rethink his passion for all things "colonial", be a bit more discriminatory and focus on those things and practices which truly reflect the worst of the colonial past and have no place in a modern India. Here is a short list:

Unelected (and usually unelectable) Governors who behave like Viceroys and lord it over elected governments; Raj Bhavans which function as opulent embassies of the Center in the states (and sometimes as dens of conspiracy); summer vacations of Supreme Court judges (even though tens of thousands of cases are pending in that court and no other institution enjoys this facility); the humiliating practice of addressing judges as "Mluds" in a free country; the royal trappings of just about everything in Rashtrapati Bhavan, including a cavalry regiment exclusively dedicated to escorting the President, on the lines of the Praetorian Guard of the Roman emperors, or the Garde Imperial of Napoleon, or the Gardes Suisses or the Gardes Francaisses of the Swiss and French monarchs, respectively. The President is no monarch, (or at least so we hope), and there is no need to display such in-your-face-pomp to the citizens of a democracy, especially when it comes at such a cost.

There are plenty of colonial practices which need to be jettisoned, but we can surely do better than begin with the bandhgalla ? When B***S**t becomes state policy, one has to agree with the dude who redefined Pranayam as : Inhale the good shit, exhale the bullshit. Which is why we need a BSI, folks

WHATSAPP AND THE NEED FOR A DIGITAL DETOX .

 If you ask me, this WhatsApp (WA) texting is getting quite out of hand. I'm no social spark, my social skills being on par with a grizzly just emerging from a four month hibernation, but even I find about 20-25 new messages on my phone when I wake up of a morning. And during the course of the day there will be about another 30 or so. Of this, only about 5 will convey anything meaningful, the rest will be rubbish- generic religious greetings, homilies on how to live well, quotations from unheard sages, all kinds of fake news, RIP messages. Some of these I find intriguing. Let me explain.

Take the RIPs. What's the point of sending an RIP on a group chat if a member or relative/friend of one has passed on? How does that console the effected family? Would it not make more sense if the message were sent directly to the family of the deceased? Is the intention of the messaging to make a public display of your concern or to show genuine sympathy or grief ? If the former, wouldn't it be better to take out a two column insert in the TRIBUNE or TIMES OF INDIA?

Then come the proforma greetings- Happy Republic Day! Happy New Year! Happy Women's Day! Happy Ganesh Chaturthi! Now, apart from the fact that there is little happiness attached to any of these occasions nowadays, not one of these messages is usually composed by the sender- all of them are "Forwards"! These are "pass through" wishes, second hand greetings: this alone says a lot about their sincerity or genuineness. And what's the ruddy point of all this, considering that your cup of happiness is already overflowing since every blessed day of the year is "Happy something or the other"?

Even the "news" or informatory items are usually "forwards", rarely does the sender verify their authenticity or give his own views, and one doesn't have a clue why it has been sent. No only is this  intellectual laziness at its worst, it also assumes that you are an ignoramus who has no idea of what is going on in the world and therefore needs to be reminded every half hour!

I usually delete all such messages without even reading them. In addition, I have on my WA groups a mental list of such serial offenders and delete their messages without even looking at them. So, you may well ask, why am I getting so riled up about all this?

Because, dear reader, there's an environmental cost to this digital diarrhea. The internet contributes more to global pollution levels than the Aviation sector- 3.7 % as against the latter's 3%. Globally, 150 billion WA messages are texted every day (this is in addition to 300 billion emails !) Every WA (or email) message generates 0.3 to 0.7 gms of CO2; attached pictures, video or audio increase this to 17 gms. (This is the result of the energy needed to power your device, servers, and the data centres that store the data). Not much to bother about, you might say. But do the maths to understand my angst.          India has about 800 million WA users; assuming each user sends just 20 messages a day, the daily total comes to 16 billion messages. Assume again that each message contributes 0.5 gms of CO2, the daily emission is 10 grams per user. Extrapolating this for 800 million users, the pollution contribution by Whatsapp comes to 8000 tonnes per day or 2,920,000 tonnes per annum.

The contributions of Gmail, Netflix, Youtube are in addition, and much higher. The latest to join the polluting bandwagon is AI whose data centers consume humungous amounts of power (and water): the AI chatbot Chat GTP's emissions per month are equivalent to 260  flights from New York to London! The digital carbon footprint, currently almost 4% of total emissions, is expected to double in the next five years.

As in other areas of consumption, we must be more responsible, and  incorporate digital, or data, hygiene in our use of the internet. Apart from putting a stop to unnecessary texting, experts advise that we should clear out our old and dated stored messages, photos and videos regularly, avoid sending attachments unnecessarily, unsubscribe from unwanted news letters, compress docs before sending them, stop this pernicious and fashionable practice of "binge-watching". It is not necessary to forward every message received on WhatsApp to all and sundry simply to show how well connected, or informed, you are; moreover, chances are that most of these folks would already have received these messages from others who think just as you do!  Try and spend one day in a week without sending any messages. Every little bit helps and we need to practice digital detoxing on a regular basis. If not, stop complaining about the AQI: a country gets the leaders-and AQI- it deserves.  

 

WOULD YOU LIKE THE GOOD NEWS FIRST OR THE BAD NEWS ?

 I've been away from my village in Himachal for the last three months and am beginning to feel homesick; the remedy, Neerja tells me, is to write about the latest news from the state. I can ignore her advice only at my peril, so here goes. But since there is both good news and bad news to convey, which should I relate first? I am in a bit of a quandary, like the French Foreign Legion officer who had been besieged for weeks by a bunch of fierce Bedouins. Finally he assembles his men and addresses them:

"Mes braves, I have some bad news and some good news, which would you like to hear first?"

"The bad news first!" is the roar.

" Well, the bad news is that we are out of food. We only have camel dung to eat now."

"What is the good news, then, mon colonel?"

" I am happy to tell you that there is plenty of camel dung to last us weeks!"

See the genius of this approach folks? Always end your spiel on a hopeful note, even if it doesn't do much to alter the state of affairs. So let's begin with the not-so-good news from my state this week since there's plenty of camel dung, if not bull shit, to go around these days.

 The youthful PWD Minister, Mr. Vikramaditya Singh, whose political career so far has been much shorter than his name, made a public statement last week that has caused much confusion in the corridors of power and consternation among the bureaucracy. In an interview he charged IAS/IPS and IFS officers from outside the state (i.e. non-Himachal officers) of showing no concern or interest in the state's welfare, of being interested only in their own power and perks, and of continuing to maintain links with the opposition (BJP) parties. This has created a huge controversy, fractured the council of Ministers and led to strong protests by the IAS and IPS Officers' Associations. For some strange reason the Indian Forest Service chaps have remained silent.

Now, had this been a generic statement, applicable across the spectrum of bureaucracy, the Minister would have been correct in all three assertions. But by singling out only "outside" officers for his accusation, and creating a rift between them and the "insiders", Mr. Singh has revealed his immaturity, ignorance of the structure of the All India Services, political naivette, frustration and perhaps a personal agenda that has not been fulfilled. He has, in addition, done great disservice to his late father, Virbhadra Singh, a six-time Chief Minister and undoubtedly the tallest leader the state has had since the first Chief Minister, Dr. YS Parmar. Virbhadra Singh was successful precisely because he understood the bureaucracy, its skills and deficiencies, and handled it with remarkable skill, like one would a spirited pedigreed horse- with regard but with the reins kept tight. His son has a lot to learn from him.

It is not without reason that Sardar Patel had imposed a 50:50 ratio of "insiders" and "outsiders' for allotment of AIS officers to a state (something Vikramaditya Singh is now implicitly challenging). Officers from outside- the expatriates- bring a new and fresh perspective to the issues confronting a state, they are less influenced by local politics, they are not indebted to any powers within that state and therefore not required to repay any of those debts, they have no extended families to favour, they encourage inter-state integration. All these attributes are supposed to (and do) contribute to a better, objective and unbiased administration, one which functions without fear or favour. If this does not happen (which is quite often) it is not because of the "outsiders" but because of forces which effect both the outsiders and insiders, perhaps the latter even more so. These forces are agnostic in nature- they do not effect just one group or the other- whether it be corruption, lethargy, rent seeking, politicisation or display of power. This is not to deny that there are some expatriate officers who have no attachment to their allotted state and continuously seek to go on central deputation, but these are a minuscule majority and it is neither fair nor factual to tar the entire lot with the same exclusionary and parochial brush. If the Minister had some grievance/complaint against some individual officer/s (which appears to be the case) it would have been appropriate for him to have taken up the matter with the Chief Minister privately, rather than vent his royal spleen publicly.

The unfortunate effect of Vikramaditya Singh's statement is to sow-perhaps unintendedly- another note of divisiveness in a smorgasbord of already existing divisions in the civil services- of caste, region, economic background, political affiliations, etc. Considering that it is these services which are holding the country together in these difficult times, we can do without an additional fracture of morale and cohesiveness. I am sure the late Chief Minister (under whom I have served for more than twenty years) would not have approved of such a statement, and it would be right if his son withdrew his accusation or apologised for it. He is still young enough to say Sorry.

                                  ( Sissu lake and village. Photo by Ankit Sud. )

And now the good news. Sissu panchayat of the sub-district of Lahaul (the other side of the Atal tunnel) has had enough: in a resolution on 8th January, 2026   it has decreed that all tourism related activities in the panchayat are banned till the beginning of March. Though it says that this has been done to preserve the culture, traditions, way of life, rituals and natural environment of the area, I suspect that this is a pushback to the over-tourism that now plagues most of the state. The fragile ecology of Lahaul cannot cope with the 20000 vehicles that cross the tunnel every day, or the plastics, human waste and atrocious behaviour that their occupants leave behind.

                    (Sissu village with Gepan peak in background. Photo by Rahul Sud).

The decision should not be viewed as one which is hostile to tourists, but as an appeal for more respectful and sustainable tourism. For the choice for the tribal residents of Sissu is not an easy one- they have to choose between livelihood and preservation of their way of life and ecology from the destructive footprints of the I-don't -give-a-damn tourist. I am glad they have made the right decision, in favour of giving themselves and nature some recovery time every year. I hope that other similarly placed panchayats will also display the same boldness and foresight and follow suit. It is, of course, too much to expect the state government to show the same sense of responsibility and firmness.