IN & AROUND
THE SUBCONTINENTAL MENU
COW CORPS DISBANDED
FRIESIAN cattle are famous the world over ; their descendants , created by breeding them with India ’ s Sahiwal cattle , are perhaps less so . Now , 25,000 of these ‘ Frieswal ’ hybrids are posted in 39 military farms across India . The farms were set up in 1889 to provide fresh food for the army , and the high-yield cows still supply 14 per cent of the army ’ s milk .
But a decision was taken last year to sell off the farms ( 20,000 acres of land in total ) to cut flab and free up more than 57,000 troops for other duties . It hit a snag when no one was willing to pay the price the cows were valued at — over Rs 1 lakh per animal . The army has therefore decided to transfer the cows to central or state government departments and dairy co-operatives for a token price of Rs 1,000 each .
A HARYANA LOVE STORY
BROKERS beware — no W . C ., no wedding . A state governmentdir ected screening of the Bollywood film Toilet : Ek Prem Katha ( 2017 ) for all sarpanchs in the region has had a profound effect on the denizens of Gaundika village in Haryana ’ s Sirsa district . The panchayat has passed a resolution — praised by CM Manohar Lal Khattar — that the marriages of local girls will be arranged only with grooms who have toilets in their houses . Banners and hoardings erected across the village proclaim : “ Beti wahin byahenge jis ghar me shauchalaya payenge .” ( Marry your daughter off only to a house where there is a toilet ). A chuffed sarpanch cited hygiene and women ’ s safety as reasons for the decision .
COMMUNITY POLICING
OCIAL media posts inciting
Scommunal hatred are a ubi quitous phenomenon — and it seems the Assam police have developed a doctrine to combat this . Their ‘ soft policing ’ tactics include policemen raising awa reness about social media misuse in gatherings such as weekly markets , where they can meet people and perhaps convince them to become inf ormants . Their cyber cell is keeping tabs on Facebook and Twitter as well as WhatsApp . They say they have infiltrated various WhatsApp groups and got group administrators on side . Recently , they showed their mettle in arresting Ikramul Haque , who had made a fake Twitter account to post communal messages relating to the National Register of Citizens as well as a threat to blow up Guwahati on August 15 .
VANISHING POSSIBILITY
IT may not be about the statute of limitations , but time and establishment solidarity threaten to obscure the truth behind Sri Lankan rebel leader Rohana Wijeweera ’ s disappearance following arrest 29 years ago . His wife , Srimathi , has filed a petition in the Court of Appeal , to get the government to produce her husband . Wijeweera led the Marxist outfit Janatha Vimukthi Peram una , which was responsible for two bloodsoaked insurgencies in 1971 and 1987- 89 . When he disappeared in 1989 , there were allegations that he had been extra-judicially executed . He was reportedly taken to a cemetery , shot in the leg and then burned alive in the crematorium ; the official claim was that a comrade JVP member , also in army custody , shot him dead .
12 OUTLOOK 23 July 2018
Illustrations by SAJITH KUMAR