Outlook English - Print Subscribers Copy Outlook English, 16 July 2018 | Page 8
IN & AROUND
THE SUBCONTINENTAL MENU
A CONGRESS OF SWOTS
AICC social media coordinator
Rohan Gupta. There were reports
that confused candidates had con-
sulted each other—but as UPCC
president Raj Babbar was quoted
as saying, “If someone asks me
such questions, I will also have to
think for answers.” And what does
the BJP have to say about all this?
They’ve called it “a joke”. One
wonders if there was a question
about how many Congress MPs it
takes to change a light bulb.
H
OW many MPs does Uttar
Pradesh send to the Lok
Sabha? What are the key failures
of the BJP governments at the
Centre and in UP? These were
some of the questions asked in a
written test that the UP Congress
held to select spokespersons,
following similar processes in
Karnataka and Gujarat. Around
70 Congressmen of all ages took
the test and were interviewed by
THE NEW NEW
TERRITORIES
TUSKLESS TERRORIST
L
H
ARD a’ port if you’re hard up. A
Sri Lankan government probe
seen by the The New York Times
shows that at least Rs 523 crore from
the accounts of a Chinese state-
owned firm flowed into then presi-
dent Mahinda Rajapaksa’s campaign
funds during his failed re-election
campaign in 2015, allowing the cam-
paign to indulge in largesse. And the
China Harbor Engineering Company
now owns one of the island nation’s
ports. Hang on, isn’t the age of colo-
nial concessions long past? Well, Raj
apaksa had left his successors little
choice. His Chinese friends had lent
him money for his infeasible Ham-
bantota port project. But it drew little
traffic when it became operational
and, faced with mounting debts, the
government was forced to hand the
port and 15,000 acres of land on a 99-
year lease to the Chinese.
TRUE GRIT
T
HAT’S what it takes to
be IAS officer Rohini
Sindhuri Dasari, according to a
fawning news agency report.
Said paragon has successfully
contested a premature transfer
ordered by the state govern
ment, with the Karnataka High
Court reinstating her as deputy
commissioner of Hassan dis
trict. Former CM Siddaramaiah
had instigated the transfer,
allegedly due to lobbying by
magnates, after Dasari cracked
down on illegal sand mining in
the district. Dasari’s triumph
stands in stark contrast to the
downfall of former state
minister A. Manju, who had
been in charge of Hassan and
against whom Dasari had filed
a case. The saga ended with
Manju’s embarrassing ouster in
the recent assembly elections.
ADEN (the elephant) is not
dead—he’s working havoc in
Assam. The eight-foot-tall wild mak
hana (tusk-less male elephant), bel
ieved to be around 30 years old, may
have killed 30 people over the last
three years in the Rogjuli-Krishnai-
Goalpara belt, according to the forest
department’s estimates. Originally
part of a four-member herd when he
was first sighted in 2015, having come
down from the Garo hills, Laden has
been alone for the past two years and
may be attacking people out of frus-
tration, according to the Goalpara
DFO Aiszwarya Goswami. “He nor-
mally attacks people in late evenings
or at night. When he comes across a
human, he tends to kick him or attack
him,” Goswami said. Officials have
been tracking his movements and
are formulating a plan to capture and
perhaps translocate him—far from a
simple proposition.
Illustrations by SAJITH KUMAR
8 OUTLOOK 16 July 2018