There is something vaguely disconcerting about Anbumani Ramadoss’s relentless drive towards a healthier nation. Everything that the Union health and family welfare minister has to say about less self-destructive lifestyles is quite true, and deserves to be part of everybody’s consciousness. But the spirit in which such “awareness-raising” is turned into State “action”, ticking off one health agenda after another, is likely to leave sensible adults in a modern democracy somewhat breathless and apprehensive, even if some aspects of his modus operandi are to be lauded. Mr Ramadoss’s clear-headedness about decriminalizing homosexuality as crucial to tackling HIV/AIDS in India has been exemplary, especially when compared to the dangerous bigotry about the issue shown by some of his peers. The smoking ban is also in tune with the rest of the respectable world, although the way it was enacted — at one fell swoop, instead of coming in phases — left the nation reeling.

Now the minister has focused on junk food. And although his concern is still confined to questions of “awareness”, Indians have learnt that it does not take him very long to sit up and Do Something About It. Attempts have been made already to influence campus canteens to not serve food deemed unhealthy, and to prevent celebrities from endorsing such foods. Already, the question of personal freedom could occur to many adult Indians, and it might even be argued that a nation that has to be punished into eating wholesomely is not likely to look the picture of health, in the larger sense of the word. The Indian healthcare infrastructure needs oodles of political will of Mr Ramadoss’s kind to get going before it even begins to serve the general good. The waistlines and cardiac valves of the urban binging classes are probably best left to their own judgments. Ensuring clean drinking water for every Indian child might be a better goal to be relentless about.