Outlook English - Print Subscribers Copy Outlook English, 02 July 2018 | Page 6

IN & AROUND
THE SUBCONTINENTAL MENU
MANGO MAKETH MAN
recently. A statistically meaningless
claim, to be sure, but some have
taken umbrage. NCP MP Supriya
Sule was quoted as saying, “For any
woman, attaining motherhood ...is
a matter of pride. It’s unfortunate
that a shallow debate is taking place
on such a matter,” while the anti-
supe­rstition organisation Maha-
rashtra Andhshraddha Nirmulan
Samiti has called for a case against
Bhide under the Anti-Superstition
and Black Magic Act.
W
HAT does Sambhaji Bhide,
head of the Hindutva outfit
Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan and
one of the accused in January’s
Bhima-Koregaon violence, recom-
mend if you want to be blessed with
many strong sons? Severe austeri-
ties? Nope. “Mangoes are powerful
and nutritious. Some women who
ate mangoes from my garden have
given birth to sons,” he reporte­
dly said while speaking in Nashik
OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD
TROLLS GUARD
THE CROSSING
P
LEASE specify your profession
when you register with the Punjab
police’s online tenant verification
system—are you a professional killer,
a practitioner of the world’s oldest
profession or merely a gardner (sic)?
A goof-up on www.policesanjh.in
has resulted in such lofty vocations
as ‘pimp’ ‘hired killer’, ‘bootlegger’,
‘smuggler’ and ‘gambler’ being
available alongside more mundane
professions in a dropdown list. Land-
lords in the state are legally required
to get their tenants registered with
the police, and this form includes a
separate column to disclose any crim-
inal record—but there has been some
cross-pollination. A police officer was
quoted as saying that if anyone applies
under one of these categories, “The
police will not only reject the tenant
verification application, but may also
summon them for questioning.”
A
THANKS,
BUT NO TANKS
I
F you happen to see a
lost-looking irrigation tank by
the wayside, do hand it over
to the district collector. Some
200 posters offering a reward
of Rs 1 lakh for whoever finds
two ‘missing’ tanks have been
put up all over Madurai by S.
Sankarpandi, a member of the
Tamil Nadu BJP state executive
who is in charge of the Madurai
zone’s youth wing. The move
is intended to draw attention
to the real fate of the tanks. In
the case of one, according to
Sankarpandi, “A squatter has
filled up the tank with sand
and marked a boundary using
boulders,” while the other “has
been converted into a farm by
another squatter.” With several
acres of land being dependent
on the two now out-of-com-
mission tanks, Sankarpandi
approached the collector, and
now an official inquiry has
reportedly been launched.
N army of trolls has been mar-
shalled against Sh