I read on the BBC website on

CIA Torture techniques:

QUOTE

Water boarding: prisoner bound to a board with feet raised, and cellophane wrapped round his head. Water is poured onto his face to produce fear of drowning

Cold cell: prisoner made to stand naked in cold, though not freezing, cell and doused with water

Standing: Prisoners stand for 40 hours or more, shackled to floor

Belly slap: Hard slap to stomach with open hand. Designed to be painful but not to cause injury

Source: Described to ABC News by un-named CIA agents in 2005

Sitting here in India and reading all the details of such torture methods makes me laugh. What has been described here is all about extending a lot of discomfort and some level of pain. Not really torture as understood in India.

What is torture over here is inflicting or causing intense level of brutal pain, not something of extended duration. Beat up brutally, with crushing pain; inflict burns; hang upside down and beat; beat on the bottom of the feat; push pin and sharp sticks under finger nail, and into the penis; immerse in boiling water; kill slowly; punch on the head so that it goes back and hits the wall behind; pull out the moustache and beard; bend the fingers and toes.

I did once meet an Indian army officer who told me that he had been given accolades during the Bangladesh war for being very efficient in extracting information from Pakistani captured soldiers with lightning speed, during the heat of the battle, which was of immense use to the Indian side.

What the CIA is reputed to be using is only laughable stuff, even when compared to what happens daily in most Indian police stations. Again, I am sorry to say, it is connected to language. I can explain: Let me take the case of the south Indian language of Malayalam. I have done intense research in this language; as I have found it one of the most feudal languages that I have encountered, much more than Tamil in certain ways.

When a man goes to a police station, the first thing they seek is his job and/or his family strings. On the basis of his profession/family, the word ‘You’ is selected. If he is a ‘Sar’ (meant for government officials), he is extended a seat, tea and some pastries. If he is something like a teacher or some other social known persons, the You is ‘Nigal’. He may get a seat; not necessarily tea. Yet, if the person is a lower grade citzen (meaning not a government official and no proper family connections), the You is ‘Nee’. Then he can be/is a ‘Son of a bitch’, a ‘mother fucker’, a ‘rascal’, a ‘dog’ and much more. If he is the accused, it is a rare occasion that he escapes a beating. What is more terrorising than the beating, is the very lowering of the word ‘You’; it can literally kill a person socially, and also physically.

If the person is a complainant, then he is a nuisance. The terror of the police over here is nothing compared to what is imaginable over there; unless you are with proper connections.

As for the Americans, I can only pity them; they are simply living in a fantasy world. Realities are much rougher than they can imagine.