Former HISD superintendent Richard Carranza, who left the district after an 18-month stint in March 2018 to become chancellor of New York City public schools, aired similar complaints to a state-appointed monitor observing the district prior to his departure.

State officials also identified several instances in which district officials “manipulated contract procurement rules” by splitting job orders into smaller amounts, apparently to avoid requirements that board members vote on the agreement. TEA investigators did not identify specific individuals for wrongdoing regarding those job orders, but faulted HISD trustees for allowing the practice.

Investigators did single out Dávila in their report, accusing her of conspiring with an HISD administrator, her husband and two other individuals to steer a contract to a custodial company in 2016. An unnamed HISD administrator told investigatorsof the hill upper caste communities. It diluted affirmative action and drew up draconian citizenship provisions. The Madhesi forces of the plains bordering India were unhappy.

Delhi was uncomfortable. It realised that Madhesi discontent would spill across the border and feared a Sri Lanka-type situation. PM Modi told Nepal’s political elite that the constitution should be drafted through consensus, which would mean taking all actors, including the Maoists, on board.

But Nepali leaders, almost exclusively from hill castes, were keen to preserve their dominance. They saw this as an Indian conspiracy to increase its control. They disregarded both Indian advice and Madhesi protests and pushed a constitution forward in September, 2015.

The Madhesi protests escalated after the constitution. The state was brutal and killed over forty protestors — this fed to