Community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or ca-MRSA, … has become a serious health threat in the United States. Doctors have already discovered it in Germany, although no deaths have been attributed to it yet in the country.

The two bacteria, [hospital acquired] ha-MRSA and ca-MRSA, are only two strains from an entire arsenal of pathogens that are now resistant to almost all available antibiotics. Less than a century after the discovery of penicillin, one of the most powerful miracle weapons ever produced by modern medicine threatens to become ineffective.
…
About two weeks ago, consumers were alarmed by the results of an analysis of chicken meat by the environmentalist group Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND), which found multidrug-resistant bacteria on more than half of the chicken parts purchased in supermarkets.

The dangerous bacteria have even been detected on one of Germany’s high-speed ICE trains. Likewise, more than 10 percent of the residents of German retirement homes have been colonized by MRSA bacteria. In their case, every open wound is potentially deadly. The pathogens have also been found on beef, pork and vegetables.
…
In fact, the carelessness with which doctors and farmers are jeopardizing the effectiveness of one of the most important groups of drugs borders on lunacy. Some 900 metric tons of antibiotics are administered to livestock each year in Germany alone. Instead of treating only those animals that are truly sick, farmers routinely feed the medications to all of their animals. Likewise, some 300 metric tons of antibiotics are used to treat humans each year, far too often for those merely suffering from a common cold.
…
The exhaust gases emitted by giant feedlots for pigs and chickens could also pose a danger greater than previously thought. These meat factories blow bacteria, viruses and fungi into the air. The government of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia has commissioned a study to determine whether feedlots are discharging multidrug-resistant bacteria, thereby endangering people in the surrounding areas.

Last year, North Rhine-Westphalia was also the first German state to systematically investigate the use of antibiotics in chicken farms. The horrifying conclusion was that more than 96 percent of all animals had received these drugs — sometimes up to eight different agents — in their short lives of only a few weeks. “That was the proof that the exception — namely, treating disease — had become the rule,” says Johannes Remmel, a Green Party member and the state’s consumer protection minister.

The director of the Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance at Tufts University School of Medicine writes in the NYT that this is a problem also in the USA:

Factory farms are major contributors to the selection and transfer of drug resistance genes, which threaten human health. Animals far outnumber humans in the United States and consume a higher volume of antibiotics, particularly at subtherapeutic doses for growth promotion. Sludge and downstream waterways from farms create an environment where drug resistance can transfer to human pathogens, leading to treatment failure.

So the next time someone says that over-the-counter sales of drugs in India is the reason behind the rise of antibiotic tolerant bacteria, remind them that the total amount of antibiotics used in farms in Germany alone exceeds that sold over the counter in India.

An 82% of the electorate on Saturday exercised their franchise in Manipur assembly elections marred by militants’ violence that claimed five lives and left two injured. Chief electoral officer PC Lawmkunga said as per preliminary official reports, 82% of the 17.40 lakh electorate cast votes but details from the nine districts in the state were yet to be received.

A CRPF man, three Village Volunteer Force personnel and a civilian were killed and two injured when miliants attacked an polling station in an interior area in Sugnu assembly constituency in Chandel district, official sources said.

However, Lawmkunga said a voter, his supporter and a security man were killed in an exchange of fire at the Dampi polling station in the district.

ET has a quick review of the electoral situation:

A coordination committee of seven major militant groups had called for a ban on all election meetings and campaigning by Congress candidates.

Congress and its partner CPI, which comprise the ruling Secular Progressive Front, fought separately. While Congress contested all the 60 seats, CPI did so in 24.

Trinamool Congress, which has one legislator and is an ally of Congress in West Bengal contested in 47 seats on its own.

Peoples Democratic Front, an opposition five-party alliance comprising Manipur Peoples Party, NCP, CPI-M, Janata Dal (U) and RJD, contested 43 seats.

BJP fielded candidates in 19 seats and Manipur State Congress Party (MSCP) in 34. Manipur unit of Nagaland-based party, Naga Peoples Front (NPF), contested in 12 constituencies in the hills.

The Hindu has a more detailed story on the politics of Manipur:

Thuingaleng Muivah

In 2007, [United Naga Council]-backed Independents won all the three seats in Ukhrul district, the home district of the general secretary of Naga underground outfit National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) Thuingaleng Muivah. Three years later when Mr Muivah wanted to visit his birthplace Somdal village in Ukhrul district in 2010, the Okram Ibobi Singh-led Congress coalition government refused to allow him to enter Manipur even though the Ministry of Home Affairs granted permission to the NSCN(IM) general secretary.

Ibobi’s tough stand leading to deployment of the Manipur Rifles at Mao gate and police firing on Naga protestors killing two sparked angry protests by several Naga groups. All this happened amidst an economic blockade called by the All Naga Students of Manipur along the two National Highways 39 and 53, the lifelines of Manipur, choking supply of essential goods. The ANSAM blockade was lifted after 68 days.

The blockade was called to oppose holding of Autonomus District Council (ADC) polls. The Ibobi government, however, went ahead and conducted the ADC polls after 20 years and the governance in the hills was transferred to elected representatives although Naga groups continued to denounce these bodies.

Okram Ibobi Singh

The ruling Congress justified holding the ADC polls saying the absence of elected district councils amounted to denying the hill people their right to local self-governance. Besides, development funds provided to ADCs could not be utilised if there were no elections.

The Congress hopes that apart from holding the ADC polls, the inauguration of a number of developmental projects, including three 33/11 KVA power sub-stations at Jessami, Tamei and Tousem, a 50-bed hospital at Senapati, a PHC building at Jessami, a Navodaya school building at Tamenglong and mini-secretariats at Tamenglong and Senapati by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram during his visit to Manipur in November 2-3, 2011 would help the ruling party.

Usually a large turnout means that the incumbent government is on its way out. We’ll know what it means in this case very soon.

Daily Mail reports:

Giving a speech in Canberra, Anthony Albanese, the Australian transport minister, launched an attack on Tony Abbott, the Liberal party opposition leader.

‘In Australia we have serious challenges to solve and we need serious people to solve them,’ he said. ‘Unfortunately, Tony Abbott is not the least bit interested in fixing anything. He’s only interested in two things – making Australians afraid of it and telling them who’s to blame for it.’

If you think that sounds a tad familiar, you’d be right.

In the 1995 movie The American President, President Andrew Shepherd, played by Michael Douglas, tore into his rival Bob Rumson.

‘We have serious problems to solve and we need serious men to solve them,’ Shepherd said. ‘And whatever your particular problem is, friend, I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only – making you afraid of it and telling you who’s to blame for it.’

In a statement, Katju said attributed this obsession with Rushdie to a colonial inferiority complex. “Salman Rushdie dominated the Jaipur Literature Festival…I have read some of Rushdie’s works and am of the opinion that he is a poor writer, and but for ‘Satanic Verses’ would have remained largely unknown. Even ‘Midnight’s Children’ is hardly great literature,” Katju said.

Mr. Katju, do you think “but for ‘Satanic Verses’ [Rushdie] would have remained largely unknown” because ‘Satanic Verses’ is a great book, or because of the controversy attached to it? In either case, have you read the book which you are criticising (or praising)? About ‘Midnight’s Children’, you are certainly entitled to your opinion, but what makes it a normative opinion? Would you defend my right to have a different opinion?

The same newspaper article goes on to quote further:

He added that the “whole problem with the so-called educated Indians of today is that they still suffer from the colonial inferiority complex. So whoever lives in London and New York must be a great writer, while writers living in India are inferior.”

Mr. Katju, when you say “whole problem” do you really mean there are essentially no other problems whatsoever with the people whom you call “so-called educated Indians”? In either case, do you think that more or less all of them suffer wholly and completely from this single problem? Would you defend my right to differ from you?

We, the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic and to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;

It is a craven mockery of the government’s duty to uphold this constitutional guarantee of the liberty of expression that we saw during the just-concluded Jaipur literature festival. The Hindu editorialized:

This newspaper has revealed how a ‘plot’ to kill the eminent author Salman Rushdie had been invented by the Rajasthan Police in a pathetic but successful attempt to dissuade him from participating in the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival. In the face of motivated protests from a gaggle of political opportunists and religious fanatics, the State government had first sought to stop Mr. Rushdie from visiting Jaipur. Upon discovering that he was, as a person of Indian origin, entitled to do so, it then resorted to a series of increasingly unsubtle coercive means to bring about that outcome. The real issue, though, isn’t either Mr. Rushdie or The Satanic Verses, a book he wrote more than two decades ago and about which he has already “profoundly regret[ed] the distress” occasioned to “sincere followers of Islam.” It is that “the search for truth and adventure of new ideas” India so desperately needs has suffered a grievous blow. After the hounding of M.F. Husain and Taslima Nasreen by Hindu and Muslim fanatics, India has again betrayed its heritage of providing sanctuary to persecuted individuals and ideas, not to speak of its Constitution.

Occupying centre stage in the hall of shame is Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who ought to have ensured his administration defended Indian law by securing Mr. Rushdie. Instead, fearful of being made a scapegoat within the Congress if the party does poorly in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections, he betrayed his constitutional obligations.

The conspicuous absence of prime minister Mr. Manmohan Singh during this crisis of the constitution cannot fail to remind us of 2002, when during the complete breakdown of the constitution in Gujarat, the prime minister Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee was similarly rendered inconsequential.

The presence of Salman Rushdie in India, and in the Jaipur Literature Festival, would not have violated any laws. If it had, then the government would have invoked those laws to exclude him. Restricting this guaranteed liberty by executive action is forbidden by Indian law, so the covert actions (however unsubtle) by the state government, and the complete silence from the center. Even a former justice of the supreme court converted a question of constitutional propriety into one of sham literary criticism. Daily Mail India reported:

Press Council of India chairman Markandey Katju believes Salman Rushdie is a poor and substandard writer, who wouldn’t have become famous had he not written The Satanic Verses.

‘I do not wish to get into the controversy whether banning him (from the Jaipur Literature Festival) was correct or not. I am raising a much more fundamental issue. I have read some of Rushdie’s works and am of the opinion that he is a poor writer, and but for The Satanic Verses, would have remained largely unknown,’ Katju said. ‘Even Midnight’s Children is hardly great literature.’

The former Supreme Court judge said the problem with some ‘educated Indians’ was that they still suffered from ‘colonial inferiority complex’. ‘So, (they think) whoever lives in London and New York must be a great writer, while writers living in India are inferior.’

Does Mr. Katju include Mohandas Gandhi in this category? After all he did confess to being influenced by writers such as Tolstoy and Thoreau.

The right to free speech was exercised in Jaipur by four invitees to the lit fest. TOI reports:

Jeet Thayil along with Ruchir Joshi, Amitava Kumar and Hari Kunzru were asked to leave the Jaipur Literature Festival after they read out passages from Salman Rushdie’s banned book The Satanic Verses. TOI caught up with Jeet for his take on the incidents at the lit-fest.

How did the whole book reading idea take seed?
Before the festival, when we thought Salman Rushdie would be attending too, Ruchir had asked me to read a passage from The Satanic Verses. At that point, I said no as I felt there was no real need to read from the book as the man himself was going to be there. But once I reached the fest and found out that he was not coming, I changed my mind and felt I should read from the book.

What happened at the reading?
Ruchir and I first read from our own books and held question-answer sessions on them. After we were done with that we read from the most controversial passage of The Satanic Verses, which is also the best part of the book. Ruchir and I read out alternate sentences from the excerpt. Nobody stopped us from reading the passage as we did not make an announcement that we were going to read from the book. We did so only after reading the passage and then all hell broke loose. Nobody knew we were reading from The Satanic Verses till we told them.

What about Amitava Kumar and Hari Kunzru’s reading?
It was only after we finished our reading that we were told that Hari and Amitava had also read from The Satanic Verses in a separate reading. We had no clue that they were also going to read from it. They had, however, read from a fairly harmless part of the book.

What happened next?
We were ushered out and we then met with the Rajasthan police, who did not feel that anything untoward had happened and who, in fact, gave us the best bit of advice anybody at that point could have given us. I can’t reveal to you what they told us, but I must tell you that the most savvy lawyer couldn’t have given us the advice they did.

Were any laws broken?
No, the passage was from the net. Apparently, reading a passage from the book is breaking the law, but we got some good advice and we’re in no legal trouble.

Do you feel other writers should have come out more in your support?
I did not and do not expect it. I knew this is what the reaction would be. But I have said what I wanted to say by reading the passage. The sad part is, nothing’s going to change; the book and Salman are going to remain banned.

The Jaipur Literature Festival is briefly in the news every year. This was undoubtedly its finest hour, when it actually engaged with the single biggest issue that faces writers in any place and in any era. Having done so it may also signed its own death warrant, although one hopes that the Rajasthan state government continues to allow it to take place.

Three generations ago Indians, our grandparents, made their own liberty and wrote it down in a document that belongs to us. The government is our instrument for the protection of our liberties, not the owner. It forgets this in every way: from the notice of ownership it puts on copies of the constitution (see here) to trying to deny authors the right to speak. It will continue to do so unless we affirm our rights.

Photos of the solar flares of Jan 22-25 reaching the earth.

Solar flare erupting on the Sun's northeastern hemisphere at 03:49 UT on Jan. 23, 2012.

Space.com reported:

A powerful solar eruption is expected to blast a stream of charged particles toward Earth tomorrow (Jan. 24), as the strongest radiation storm since 2005 rages on the sun.

Early this morning (0359 GMT Jan. 23, which corresponds to late Sunday, Jan. 22 at 10:59 p.m. EST), NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught an extreme ultraviolet flash from a huge eruption on the sun, according to the skywatching website Spaceweather.com.

The solar flare spewed from sunspot 1402, a region of the sun that has become increasingly active lately. Several NASA satellites, including the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), and the Stereo spacecraft observed the massive sun storm.
…
According to NOAA, this is the strongest solar radiation storm since May 2005, and as a precaution, polar flights on Earth are expected to be re-routed within the next few hours, Kathy Sullivan, deputy administrator of NOAA, said today at the 92nd annual American Meteorological Society meeting in New Orleans, La.
…
In addition to generating stronger than normal displays of Earth’s auroras (also known as the northern and southern lights), geomagnetic storms aimed directly at our planet can also disrupt satellites in orbit, cause widespread communications interference and damage other electronic infrastructures.
…
Sunday’s solar flare was rated an M9-class eruption, which placed it just on the verge of being an X-class flare, the most powerful type of solar storm. M-class sun storms are powerful but mid-range, while C-class flares are weaker.
…
NASA routinely monitors space weather conditions to determine any potential hazards to the astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Based on the agency’s assessment, the six spaceflyers currently living and working on the orbiting outpost are not in any danger, said NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries.

The Maharashtra’s Anti-terrorism squad claims to have solved the Mumbai multiple bombings case of half a year ago. Moneycontrol reported:

The Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) on Monday claimed to have cracked the July 13, 2011 Mumbai blasts case, in which 27 people were killed and over 130 others injured. Two people, Naqee Ahmed and Nadeem Mukhtar, have been arrested and Yasin Bhatkal, who commissioned the blast and two others involved are yet to be arrested.

The police claimed that the financial trail of the blasts has been fully uncovered. “A lot of stress and importance was given to trace the financial trail of these blasts,” Maharashtra ATS chief Rakesh Maria said.

According to the Maharashtra ATS, 23-year old Naqee Ahmed and 22-year old Nadeem Mukhtar had stolen two scooters used in the blasts. Bhatkal reportedly gave Rs 1.5 lakh for the execution of the terror attack and provided the explosives for the blasts.

PostNoon added:

Claiming to have cracked the serial blasts that rocked Zaveri Bazar, Opera House and Dadar in south and central Mumbai in July last year, Maria said third suspect Haroon Rashid Naik, 33, was already behind bars in Mumbai.

“So, there would be technically three arrests and three (accused still) wanted in the case so far,” he said.

“Naqi is originally a resident of Darbhanga in Bihar, but had been in Mumbai since September-October 2010. Nadeem is from Deora Bandhauli, also in Darbhanga district, and has been staying in Mumbai since around the same time,” Maria said.

Maria said the main accused in the case, Yasin Bhatkal alias Imran, was still untraced. Bhatkal is known to be a prime operative of the Indian Mujahideen terror group.

“Yasin Bhatkal is the main accused in this case. He started the Darbhanga (terror) module where he held programmes to indoctrinate young boys and used them in such blasts,” Maria said.
…
Maria said that Naqi was also a suspect in a SIM card fraud. “Naqi provided SIM cards to other accused which were used during the commission of the blasts,” he said.

The ATS chief also thanked all the central and state agencies which extended help to Mumbai police during investigation.

“Our teams visited 18 states and a lead was obtained by the ATS in last week of November,” he said, adding that a total of 12,373 witnesses were examined in the case.

The investigation was being conducted by teams of Mumbai police, Maharashtra’s criminal investigation department, the National Investigation Agency and others, with support from security agencies in many states, he said.

TOI threw cold water on this story:

By declaring the arrest of Naqee Ahmed on Monday in last year’s serial blasts in Mumbai, security agencies in the national capital feel that the Maharashtra ATS may be attempting to cover its tracks after the bombers involved slipped out.

Though Maharashtra ATS chief Rakesh Maria was candid enough in admitting “competition” within various police forces in solving blast cases, officials at Union home ministry remained baffled as the announcement of arrest of 23-year-old Ahmed was flashed on television sets.

For the elite special cell of Delhi Police and special squad of Intelligence Bureau, Ahmed was the person who provided them with crucial leads in identifying Waqas and Tabrez, the two bombers in the 13/7 blast that left 27 people dead.

According to the officials, Ahmed was in Mumbai only to help in tracking down two bombers and the highly-secretive operation was being monitored by the top echelons of the security establishment closely from Delhi.

Ahmed was in the megapolis with undercover sleuths to help nab the two bombers, whom the Anti Terrorism Squad(ATS) chief on Monday identified as suspect A and suspect B.

Naquee’s submissions to the ATS form a part of statement that he had given to Delhi Police special cell.

In the national capital, his elder brother Taquee is moving from pillar to post to seek help for his brother.

“He has been helping the police only. Has this been heard before that a person is behind bars for being a informer of another police force. I think we are a democratic country,” Taquee said, as tears rolled down his cheeks.

In Mumbai court, Naquee’s counsel Khalid Azmi was reportedly disallowed from meeting his client.

The rivalry between the Maharashtra ATS and Delhi police was reported already 5 days ago in Outlook:

Maharashtra ATS chief Rakesh Maria is upset over the leakage of information about the operation to nab three suspects involved in 13\7 bomb blasts who had stayed in Byculla till December.

The ATS chief expressed his unhappiness during a meeting with state Home Department officials recently following media reports about three terror suspects who had stayed in a rented flat at Habib apartment in Byculla and escaped in December last week.

“Yes, he (Maria) is very upset with the leakage…During the meeting, he repeatedly stated that his team did not leak the information. Maria said Delhi police has done this (leaking information about the operation to media),” a police official said.

The Delhi police who were investigating the Delhi high court blast had reportedly camped in Mumbai over the last few weeks and chasing the suspects who were involved in a series of blasts including the one in Delhi high court.

Maria was miffed so much that he even switched off his phone since Monday when the news reports about the suspects appeared in media, the officer added.

The very dependable Chandigarh Tribune reported yesterday on the arrest of today’s main accused:

Is Naquee Ahmed another innocent Muslim youth in his early twenties to be unfairly detained, tortured and charged with terrorist links? Or, is he a terrorist or a terrorist in-the-making?

The answer is not forthcoming from either the Special Cell of the Delhi Police, which reportedly used the young man to identify culprits believed to have planted bombs in Zaveri Bazaar in Mumbai (July, 2011), or the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) of the Mumbai Police, which picked him up in Mumbai on January 9 and formally arrested him the next day.

Keki N Daruwalla, a member of the National Commission for Minorities and himself a retired police officer, today complained that the ATS of Mumbai Police was stonewalling all queries related to the curious detention of Naquee Ahmed.

On Sunday, Daruwalla told The Tribune, “I tried to speak to Mumbai Police Commissioner Arun Patnaik and Maharashtra ATS Chief Rakesh Maria. I also sent them messages through SMS. But nobody has bothered to get back to me. I hope they respond tomorrow, when the offices open.”

Asked what were his options if they continued to ignore his request, the audibly frustrated NCM member said, “I don’t think we have too many options. It is now for the Home Ministry to take cognizance and take appropriate action.”

Exactly this story was also reported in IE two days ago:

Days after Mohammed Naquee, a leather factory owner, was arrested by the Mumbai ATS for alleged links with terror suspect Yasin Bhatkal and the 13/7 serial blasts in Mumbai, his family members are looking at legal options to help him secure bail. Currently in custody, Naquee will be produced in a Mumbai court on Monday.

A resident of Shaheen Bagh in Delhi, Naquee was picked up by the Mumbai ATS for arranging a one-room tenement for Bhatkal and his two aides, Waqas and Tabrez, in Byculla East through a broker who too is being questioned.

While the Mumbai ATS claims that he willingly helped Bhatkal and was, therefore, linked to the blasts, the Special Team of the Delhi Police claims that Naquee was an informer who they had taken to Mumbai to identify Bhatkal’s flat. The team has been camping in Mumbai since December 11.

Meanwhile, two days ago, TOI had reported how the botched arrest, leading to the escape, of the main accused, Bhatkal, had been taken up by the Home Minister:

After two Pakistan-based Indian Mujahideen operatives slipped out of the police net moments before their Mumbai hideout was raided, the country’s two anti-terror squads are embroiled in a bitter war of words. Concerned over the infighting between Maharashtra ATS and Delhi Police, Union home minister P Chidambaram has stepped in to douse the fire. He convened a meeting with the Delhi Police commissioner on Friday to take stock of sequence of incidents that took place at Byculla earlier this month.

Clearly this is not the end of the story. If the media reports are true and the ATS has arrested an informer then this is a big blow to fighting terror. By 14 July 2011 it was clear that there was massive intelligence failure, which stemmed essentially from a lack of police informers. That situation may just have got worse.

Jan 23, 2012

The Maharashtra ATS may just have struck a blow against out security, informs NDTV:

Hours after the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) in Maharashtra announced that it had arrested three men who helped execute a trio of blasts in Mumbai in July last year, the Central government has made it clear that the Mumbai Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) had not only picked up the wrong men but had also blown a carefully launched covert operation to nab those involved in the terror attacks.
…
The excruciating embarrassment is exacerbated by the fact that one of the men arrested is actually an informer for Central intelligence agencies, according to sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs. The sources, who do not want to be identified, say the announcements made in Mumbai are “premature and misleading.”

On Monday afternoon, Rakesh Maria who heads the Anti-Terror Squad held a press conference in Mumbai where he described in great detail the role played by Haroon Rashid Naik who was found in Mumbai, and Nadeem Akhtar and Naqi Sheikh who were arrested from Bihar. They allegedly stole the scooters in which the bombs were planted, helped to rent a house for Mr Bhatkal, and ferried explosives between Delhi and Mumbai. But the three men arrested played peripheral roles. And though Naki Sheikh was in close touch with Mr Bhatkal for three months, during which period he was tailed by the Delhi Police, the leader of Indian Mujhadeen managed to slip away. He’s not alone. Home Ministry sources say that the two bombers behind the attacks are Tabrez and Waqar, Pakistani nationals, who have managed to escape because of the rivalry and consequent lack of coordination between the Delhi and Mumbai police.

Three-year-old Abhigyan and his one-year-old sister Aishwarya are in foster care in Norway after the country’s Child Protection Service charged their mother, Sagarika, with “negligence and unable to bring up” the children. Barnevarne, a child care service of Norway, took custody of the children in May last year when Aishwarya was just five months old and on breast feed.

A Norwegian court has now ruled that the two children would stay in different foster homes in until the age of 18, with the parents allowed to meet them only once a year for one hour. The court has, however, said that if the couple separated, it could give the custody of the children to the father Anurup Bhattacharya who is employed as a senior geoscientist in a multinational firm since 2006.

The couple fear the worst when their visa expires next month and they would have to return to India without their children.
…
Child right laws in Norway are very strict and it was Abhigyan’s “erratic” behaviour at school which made the school authorities suspect that he was probably not being brought up well. The child protection services people started visiting the Bhattacharya household for an hour every week and decided that Sagarika was not capable of looking after her children as she “was in depression, tired and had no patience”. They said the mother “over-fed” her child, fed with fingers and the boy slept with his father.

In a memorandum submitted to the President, the grandparents have said that Abhigyan had already lost his mother tongue. Both the children are traumatized as Barvevarne has arranged to keep them with foster families till 18 years.
…
The External Affairs Ministry had sent letters to the Norwegian government on December 28 last year and again on January 5 but failed to get any response from them.

NDTV adds:

“The Child Welfare Service has a responsibility to intervene if measures at the home are not sufficient to meet a child’s needs. Examples are when there is every probability that the child’s health or development may be seriously harmed because the parents are incapable of taking adequate responsibility for their child. The Norwegian Child Welfare Act applies to all children in Norway, regardless of the child’s nationality, citizenship or cultural background,” said Gunnar Toresen, Head of Child Welfare Services from Stavanger, Norway.

Norway’s Child Protective Service is a powerful body charged with protecting the rights of children living in difficult family situations. But there are many reports of excesses.

“There has been a report in UN in 2005 which criticized Norway for taking too many children in public care. The amount was 12,500 children and Norway is a small country,” said Svein Kjetil Lode Svendsen, a lawyer.

It seems that there are about a million children in Norway. So, that would imply that a little more than 1% of the children are taken away from their parents and put into foster homes. If this were to happen in China or India then we would certainly see many articles about in the world’s liberal press about big-brothers and dictatorial governments.

IBN Live reported:

External Affairs Minister SM Krishna on Sunday spoke to Indian Ambassador in Norway, asking him to meet Norwegian Foreign Minister and demand for release and handover kids to their parents.

“If at any cost it can’t be done as per their laws, then kids should be sent back to India to their grandparents. It should be treated with utmost seriousness,” he said. Krishna will be speaking to Norwegian Foreign Minister on Monday.

Ministry of External Affairs said the matter has been pursued actively with Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the strong demarches that were made in Oslo and [in New Delhi] on January 5, 2012.

In another report, the Hindu wrote:

A statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs here said Oslo is understood to be trying to find a solution to the issue.

The first article in the Hindu ended with a quote which brought into focus a cultural divide which was not acknowledged by the Norwegian welfare authorities:

“While I do not doubt the intentions of the authorities in Norway, taking away children from their legal guardians who are citizens of another country certainly reflects a wide cultural gulf between their understanding of child care and that in our country,” said Brinda Karat, Polit Bureau member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), who accompanied the couple to Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Cultural blindness is human. But refusing to recognize it is intolerance. And this incident again smells of the kind of self-congratulatory racism which has been creeping over Nordic Europe in recent years. The argument starts from the fact that the Nordic countries removed poverty in the 60s and 70s. Undoubtedly this was a great achievement, seen nowhere else in the world. Could Colaba have eliminated poverty? It has about the same population as Norway and for a while probably paid up a fourth of India’s tax collection. One doubts it. In any case, why is it that having demonstrated the economic, moral and political committment to the removal of poverty, the Nordic countries are seeing poverty creep back? Clearly (yes, clearly) this can’t be their fault. It must be the fault of all the immigrants.

Going by election results over the last few years, there is a gradual increase in the number of people who vote for far-right parties which subscribe to a more virulent version of this argument. The fraction of such people in the Nordic countries now stands at about 4-5%, ie, one out of 20 or 25. It is quite possible that the fraction of people who have unexamined beliefs cognate with the above argument, liberal but lazy, can be as large as 20%, which is one in 5. If so, then it is hardly likley that common unexamined beliefs of this kind did not play some role in this incident.

That still leaves the 4 in 5 who would have thought more clearly about liberalism and the meaning of a welfare state. The following statement reported by IE reflects such a more balanced point of view:

[T]he head of CWS in Stavanger, Gunnar Toresen told The Indian Express, “The impression given is that Norwegian authorities have intervened on the basis of cultural prejudice and that the case is a result of cultural insensitivity and as such an insult to India and Indian way of life…. As head of Child Welfare Services, I most strongly deny that this case in any way is based on cultural prejudice or misinterpretation.”

“I am unable to give any comments regarding the particular grounds in this case because of our duty of confidentiality,” said Toresen.

“The decision to remove the two children from their parents’ custody was taken by the County Committee (the family court) on November 28. The committee’s decision was unanimous…. in the ruling of the court, there are no references to the explanations given by the parents to the media as grounds for the ruling,” Toresen said.

The two children are currently in the custody of “non-Bengali-speaking parents”, sources said. But they are not being given any food, which is culturally banned as per Hindu beliefs

Cultural disconnect between the children and their foster parents is forming the basis of counter to the order of the family court, which was upheld once. Sources said this has emerged as a “legitimate concern” for the biological parents.

Also, the biological parents have questioned the report of the expert on the basis of which the family court gave its decision. The Norwegian authorities have appointed a “new expert” who is right now making an “independent assessment” of the children before submitting his report.

The two sides are now in “dialogue” and they are waiting for the court hearing at the District court to take place at the “earliest”, sources said. The Norwegian government is also going to foot the legal expenses of the Indian couple, who have filed their second appeal.