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Dietary habits vis-à-vis foreigners

India's fussy politicians a challenge for western diplomatic chefs

Vikram Doctor,ET Bureau | Sep 27, 2014 The Times of India

Many Indian politicians have personal dietary quirks restrictions imposed by their religion, and the chefs at the White House and similar places are used to dealing with them.

For example, a lot of salmon is served at these events, fish conveniently passes halal and kosher requirements and has a healthy reputation while salmon in particular seems luxurious enough and can be served largely boneless to prevent fears of the chief guest choking.

But Indian politicians appear to stump even the most experienced diplomatic chefs, and do it in a way that makes everyone else uncomfortable.

Perhaps it is a subtle way to score political points, and their food choices, or non-choices, do tend to cast them in a virtuous, if eccentric light. It certainly makes for memorable media moments, though actual long-term benefits might be questionable.

Morarji Desai

The real problem came after Desai became PM in the Janata government and gave an interview to the British journal, the Spectator, where he admitted to following a health regimen of drinking a glass of his urine every day. After that it was the only thing the western media wanted to talk about, and it didn't help that Desai was quite keen to promote urine therapy. Kamath, who was the Times of India's Washington correspondent at the time, moaned that any attempt to convey the Indian government's policy was wasted in talking about urine therapy.

When the PM went abroad, jokes about urine therapy followed. Luckily President Jimmy Carter knew better than to refer to them when he hosted Desai, and toasted him with a glass of plain water, rather than the usual wine. The meal was referred to as a Working Dinner, perhaps to justify its simplicity. Much to the relief of diplomats, both Indian and those of the host countries, India's other prime ministers have not posed such problems.

Indira Gandhi

Indira Gandhi seems to have liked most foods and in a visit during PV Narasimha Rao's time, the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl recalled sending her German sausages, for which he got a letter of thanks that, tragically, he only got tragically, he only got two days after her assassination.

Mahatma Gandhi

The practice really started with Mahatma Gandhi, though the British had long been aware of the pitfalls of political dining in India, and had learned to have separate cooks for different communities. Gandhi actually simplified matters by making his own food arrangements, which were often in the hands of Mirabehn, the Englishwoman who was originally Madeleine Slade. For Gandhi she was just a useful helper, but some racist Englishmen saw a white woman waiting on an Indian as deliberate provocation.

Lord Irwin, the viceroy, didn't feel this way when, during the Gandhi-Irwin talks in 1931, she was told to bring Gandhi's food to the viceroy's lodge (now Rashtrapati Bhavan) so they didn't have to break the talks to eat. In her autobiography, `The Spirit's Pilgrimage', she recalled that in those days his diet was mostly dates and goat's milk, which she quickly packed along with the metal jail utensils that he had made a point of continuing to use.

On reaching the palace she was ushered into the viceroy's huge study where, she says, he greeted her with perfect friendliness.The room had a fitted carpet and she didn't want to risk spilling milk on it, but luckily she noticed a corner that was bare. She opened her basket there and poured the hot milk over the dates and gave it to Gandhi to eat.

The viceroy was intrigued and asked what it was: "`The Prophet's food,' said Bapu with a smile." Irwin was a devout Christian and would have got the allusion to the Middle East, but could he also have got a perhaps joking reference by Gandhi's own status?

The talks were followed by the Round Table conference for which Gandhi went to Europe. The food challenge this posed revolved around goats since Gandhi only drank their milk. It was almost the only protein he took so any shortfall soon had negative effects. Taking a goat on the ship to Europe was no problem, but it became harder once they got to Italy and took a train from there. At Paris, for example, Mirabehn recalled that a beautiful white goat had been provided, but the crowds that had come to see Gandhi were so great she couldn't make her way to the goat.

Gandhi's dietary needs didn't affect his work. But this may not have been the case with Morarji Desai. The problem was not just that Desai had a very restricted diet, but that he tried putting restrictions on others as well. MO Matthai, Jawaharlal Nehru's assistant, recalled how Desai tried to stop Delhi's embassies from serving alcohol, which almost caused a diplomatic incident since embassies are technically not under the jurisdiction of the country they are in.

Narendra Modi

A week before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US in 2014, the Indian and Indian-American media were already packing in stories about it. Meanwhile, mainstream American media had barely noticed he was coming, but a Washington Post blog had picked up on the peculiar problem he posed for the White House: how were they to do the usual formal dinner for a man on a strict fast?

Richard Nixon

But MV Kamath, the veteran journalist, recalled that the real problem came with a dinner for Richard Nixon. In the early 1960s, before he was president of the US, Nixon had come to Delhi and was met by Desai, then a senior minister in Nehru's government. But Nixon was miffed at what he felt was "a meagre reception", with only vegetarian food and no alcohol, a particular hardship for him. When he went to Pakistan after that and was treated lavishly, it fixed his dislike for India and preference for Pakistan, which would cause huge problems when the Bangladesh crisis broke out.

Manmohan Singh

The last PM, Manmohan Singh, was also a frugal eater, but didn't impose his discipline on others. A dinner thrown for him by President George Bush in 2005 featured the inevitable fish (pan-roasted Halibut) with basmati rice as the one Indian accented accompaniment. The dessert though featured chocolate lotuses to eat with ice cream and one wonders what Singh made of this edible symbol of the opposing party.Perhaps it is just as well for the White House that PM Modi's water diet will prevent even an inadvertent food faux pas like this from being served.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

The previous BJP PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee was also happy to eat varied foods. On a visit to Cambodia, King Norodom Sihanouk, another food lover, served an Indian banquet with prawn curry and chicken tikka, for which he flew in chefs from Singapore and personally tried it all beforehand (one gets the impression the k ing used the visit as a way to indulge in Indian food!) At a dinner for Vajpayee thrown by President Bill Clinton, the White House kitchen, doubtless happy to put Desai's disappointments behind them, tried Indo-American fusion with dishes such as chicken smoked in Darjeeling tea.

Sex scandals

Some famous scandals and their outcome

Himanshi Dhawan, May 5, 2024: The Times of India

Mag with Maneka at helm ‘broke’ first sex scandal

The first political sex scandal in independent India is widely attributed to Dalit leader and defence minister Babu Jagjivan Ram’s son Suresh Ram. It led to Babuji’s resignation from the cabinet and ended his prime ministerial bid. In her book , ‘How Prime Minister’s Decide’, Neerja Choudhury says this was part of a plan to damage Jagjivan Ram who had emerged as a strong contender against Indira Gandhi for the PM’s position. Suresh Ram used to take polaroid photographs of his girlfriend which were stolen from his car and leaked to the media. These salacious pictures were published by Gandhi’s daughterin-law and then editor of Surya magazine, Maneka Gandhi in the late ’70s. 
Choudhury writes, “Both Charan Singh and Indira Gandhi knew he was the only other serious contender for the top job — and would need to be marginalised if their plan were to succeed. Besides Jagjivan Ram’s Dalit credentials, Indira Gandhi feared his administrative abilities. She knew she could not risk Babuji as PM, even as a stopgap…”

The Suresh Ram scandal

Himanshi Dhawan, May 5, 2024: The Times of India

Explicit video clips in pen drives are left mysteriously at bus stops, the main accused who is the scion of a politically influential family runs off abroad, and a key witness and the scion’s driver go missing…If the weather and the political slugfest wasn’t hot enough, some prurient parlour games have been added to the mix.


At the centre of the affair is JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, accused of sexually exploiting and making videos of several women over a period of many years. A SIT has been constituted by the Karnataka government to investigate the accusations. Meanwhile, the political blame game has started.
Yet for all the shock over the alleged sex crimes, Revanna is hardly the first politician to be caught in a tight spot. Over the years, there have been several instances of elected representatives accused of exploiting high office for sexual favours whether it is former Andhra Pradesh governor ND Tiwari or Madhya Pradesh minister Raghavji. In fact, Karnataka itself appears to be a hot ed for such ‘hectic activity’. In 2021, a CD involving state water resources minister Ramesh Jarkiholi was found to be in circulation and it was alleged that he had sought sexual favours from the woman in exchange for a job. Police have yet to verify its authenticity. In another instance, excise minister HY Meti was accused of seeking sexual favours with explicit videos featuring him with various women doing the rounds. He was cleared of the charges later. Not to mention the various instances of MLAs checking porn while sitting in state assemblies. 
But, in a country where politi- cians’ dalliances are seen as mere peccadilloes and accepted with a wink and a nod, has the latest controversy changed anything? Sugata Srinivasaraju, author of ‘Furrows in a Field: The Unexplored Life of HD Deve Gowda’, says the former PM and Revanna’s grandfather is widely considered to be a puritanical, conservative figure. “It is a complete shocker for Karnataka that someone from his family has been accused of sexual misconduct.”


TAMASHA BUT NO RECKONING


While Revanna’s fate still hangs in balance, there have been many others who have weathered the storm like former Andhra governor ND Tiwari who was purportedly caught on tape in a sexual romp with three women in 2009. He resigned from office but continued to deny his involvement till the end. In 2014, he acknowledged a 34-yearold as his son after a paternity test and a long court case.


Former MP finance minister Raghavji was arrested in July 2013 after his domestic help alleged that the minister abused him for three years on the promise of a government job. The victim allegedly had 22 CDs which showed Raghavji in the act. In June last year, MP high court quashed the FIR against Raghavji calling it politically motivated.


Former Haryana minister Go- pal Kanda is another high-flying politician who was accused in the suicide of air hostess Geetika Sharma. The 23-year-old, who was earlier employed with Kanda’s MLDR Airlines, was found dead in August 2012 with a suicide note that blamed him. Kanda, who was acquitted by a Delhi court last year, still has considerable political sway.


In UP, Samajwadi leader and bahubali Amarmani Tripathi had an extra-marital affair with a poet Madhumita Shukla. She was seven months pregnant when she was found dead in her home. He and his wife were convicted of her murder and got life imprisonment in 2007. Last year, both were released on the directives of the UP prison administration.


In the social media age, the sharing of sordid details and videos has only become easier. However, rather than morality tales, they have been reduced to entertaining distractions. Saroj Giri, Delhi University assistant professor (political science), says such controversies are “weaponised” by political parties. “People tend to think of these controversies as political mudslinging between two parties and do not give sexual violence against women the attention it deserves. It just becomes a tamasha.”


SURVIVING A SCANDAL


To assess the impact of scandals on a politicians’ ability to survive in office, University of Houston professor of political science Brandon Rottinghaus examined presidential, gubernatorial and Congressional scandals from 1972 to 2021 in the US. He found negative consequences from scandals vary across time and institutions. Scandals in the Watergate era led to more resignations in Congress than in the ’90s. With media more polarised than in past political eras, people can consume the media that fits their political preferences. “That means people are getting only one side of the story. If a politician gets caught in a scandal, that politician can claim the other side is out to get them politically and your base will still like you, despite the scandal,” Rottinghaus says.


SHORT MEMORIES 


The pattern seems to be true for India as well. Sex scandal or financial scam, voters and political parties tend to have a short memory. A recent report by Association for Democratic Reforms found that as many as 134 sitting MPs and MLAs in India are accused in cases related to crimes against women. “But parties continue to give tickets to people with criminal cases against them,” says political analyst Amitabh Tiwari, “Just as there are pressure groups for farmers, trade bodies, there are no influential pressure groups for women who will demand clean political candidates. Unless the public refuses to vote for a candidate who is tainted, parties will continue to give them tickets.”


The apathy makes people feel nothing will change. “The issue will move away from the headlines within the next couple of days. There is no real accountability after that,” he adds.