Whether as prison under-trials, in tax cases or for stockmarket penalties, Indian citizens are treated with arbitrary and counter-productive zeal by different arms of the state. But as the Cairn, Vodafone and Devas debacles show, when the state behaves in the same manner with external players, it gets a push-back that it does not usually experience domestically. In India, the state pays no penalty for harassing its citizens. Internationally, once the verdict has gone against it, the state has to accept the consequences of its actions, writes T N Ninan, pointing out that these setbacks should persuade the state to behave