The headline that day screamed across the newspaper and smacked me harder than any police lathi ever could: “Inspector Tukaram Kurundkar had been awarded the President’s Medal.” A fine achievement, you’d say—until you read the fine print. The man was under suspension. For murder. Not of a stranger in an…


Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and writes a daily column, which has graced the pages of over 60 newspapers and magazines, from a daily column in the Khaleej Times, Dubai, the Morning Star, London, and in nearly every state in India, from The Statesman in Kolkata, to the Kashmir Times in Kashmir to the Trinity Mirror in Chennai.