Outlook – June 29, 2019

THE SUBCONTINENTAL MENU

IN & AROUND

BAD, BAD ENGINEER

H

OW do I punish thee? Let me

count the ways. Saroj

Meher, the BJD MLA for Patnagarh,

Odisha, had a vigorous count to

keep track of as he ordered a junior

engineer to do 100 sit-ups in five

minutes. Meher was unhappy with

the shoddy road construction in

his constituency. Surrounded by a

crowd and the MLA’s retinue, the

poor engineer had no choice but

to clasp his ears and exercise his

haunches. Meher even told him to

spend out of his pocket to recon-

struct the road. “I am the MLA and

this is my order,” he declared. “I am

empowering the public to thrash

you.” Luckily for the engineer, the

befuddled crowd just watched.

MISSION KASHMIR:

THE SEQUEL

A

FTER lying low for

months, Dineshwar

Sharma, the Union’s special

representative in J&K, is

headlining again. On June 11,

the 1979-batch IAS officer

met governor Satya Pal

Malik at Raj Bhavan. Internal

security situation was their

talking point, a Raj Bhavan

statement declares. Sharma’s

appointment in 2017 was

seen as a move by the NDA

government to seek a political

solution for Kashmir, rather

than a hardline approach.

Last June, he met chief

minister Mehbooba Mufti at

the secretariat in Srinagar.

She had no inkling that a

few hours after the meeting,

the PDP’s ally for four years,

BJP, would pull the plug on

her government. We wonder

what surprise is in store after

Sharma’s recent meeting.

A HERD OF BABUS

W

HEN Anup Kumar issued

an order for transfer of 66

bureaucrats in Maharashtra, little

did he realise that he was stepping

on some big toes. Within 24 hours,

Mahadev Jankar, a minister of the

Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, a minor

ally of the BJP, stayed the transfers.

A senior official at the department

said Kumar, the animal husbandry

principal secretary, did not consult

the minister before issuing the

order, which hurt the latter’s pride.

Once touted as a ‘fakir’ who had

the power to take on an ‘emperor’

(Sharad Pawar), it seems Jankar

is nowadays busy playing game of

thrones with the babudom.

8 OUTLOOK 1 July 2019

I

T was 109 hours. That’s how long two-year-old Fatehveer was

stuck in a 125-foot bore well this June in Punjab’s Sangrur

district before rescuers pulled out his body. Within 48 hours, the

state sealed over 45 borewells and set up a helpline where people

can report such open death-holes—the ones that dot thirsty

Haryana and Punjab, and have been swallowing children. But

then, do we really care? Even if we do, nobody wants to annoy the

water deity. A borewell cap costs less than Rs 1,000, but people

believe that covering the mouth would attract the khwaja pir’s

wrath. So, the child sacrifices continue. Besides, these bottomless

burrows have been a source of prime-time entertainment ever

since five-year-old Prince’s rescue from such a pit in 2006.

HELPLINE FOR WELL-WISHERS

Illustrations by SAAHIL; Text curated by PUNEET NICHOLAS YADAV, NASEER GANAI, JYOTIKA SOOD and ALKA GUPTA