The open, uninterrupted and continuous persecution of civil rights activist/lawyer Teesta Setalvad (and husband Javed Anand) by the BJP government of Gujarat headed by Anandiben Patel ” the hand-picked choice of prime minister Narendra Modi ” is further proof that the prime minister has few qualms about hounding his actual and perceived enemies by abusing the State™s administrative services. This proclivity was first highlighted during the anti-Muslim pogrom of 2002 in Gujarat, when Modi reportedly ordered the police to stand by while BJP cadres and associated lumpens ran riot for over 48 hours, attacking and massacaring over 700 citizens of the minority Muslim community. In November 2013 in another scandal described as ˜snoopgate™, Modi reportedly deployed top police officials and agencies of the Gujarat government to spy and track a lady who had captured his fancy across several states. Now the Gujarat government says Setalvad has embezzled funds raised from the public to erect a monument commemorating the riot victims and fight their battles in court. The burden of the police charge against her is that she put some of the expenses of the Gujarat riot victims™ trust ” trusts are not eligible for issuance of credit cards ” on her personal credit card, and claimed reimbursement. For the information of the Gujarat police and high court, this is a commonplace practice in business and industry. Your editor, who was acquainted with Setalvad when she and Javed published and edited a high quality journal Communalism Combat from Mumbai, is also ready, willing and able to vouch for her character. Indeed, when your correspondent together with the late J.B. D™Souza filed a writ petition in the mid-1990s against the late Bal Thackeray for stirring up the Mumbai communal riots of 1992-93, our counsel was her father the late Atul Setalvad, assisted by Teesta. It™s impossible that there™s any substance in the embezzlement charge against her which requires ˜custodial interrogation™. It™s pure spite and vindictiveness. Unreliable heart Nobel laureate Dr. R.K. Pachauri is the latest addition to the infamous list of celebrated, influential and powerful alpha males which includes publisher-author Tarun Tejpal (Tehelka) and former Supreme Court judge A.K. Ganguly, accused of sexual harassment during the past year. According to a first information report (FIR) registered with the Delhi police, Pachauri is charged with outraging the modesty, sexual harassment, stalking, and criminal intimidation of a female employee of the Delhi-based The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI), of which he is director-general. The FIR alleges that Pachauri sent the woman researcher dozens of messages via SMS, e-mail and Whatsapp, in addition to making unwanted physical advances for over a year. The curious reluctance of the highly educated and celebrated Nobel laureate to accept rejection has provoked a spirited debate in the cyber world. One view is that despite his impressive formal education (North Carolina University), Pachauri is a typical sub-continental, who believes women cannot resist the rich and powerful. Another is that Pachauri, a small-towner born in Nainital who made it big, believed…
