Spiritual group in Punjab threatens to gun down girls wearing 'provocative' dresses

Janata CardsThrough all its troubled existence the Janata Party always gave the impression of being a house of cards, piled very very precariously into a house, and holding together only because of a thin spread of ideological glue. And sure enough, when the pack fell out with each other and collapsed, the resemblance to a deck of cards became even - more pointed.This is obviously how a manufacturer in Hukeri, Karnataka, got the idea: last month, a consignment of playing cards, priced at Rs 2 a packet, hit the shelves of stores all over the taluk, with the backs painted in the green and saffron colours of the Janata Party - which has quite a presence in the slate - and also bearing the party symbol of a man with a plough slung over his shoulder.Party activists became even more active when picturesque card meetings took place in the shade of trees and the Janata tragedy was enacted all over again. The prudent manufacturer, however, had omitted to sign his name to his sly oeuvre, and all party functionaries could do was to fume and fret and ask Janata Party General Secretary Ramakrishna Hegde to lake legal action, thus giving proof of their continuing impotence.Shortlived TriumphWho shall guard the guardians? So cried a famous Roman poet and the plaint has lost none of its appeal at a time when the guardians, especially in India, appear to be cocking expressive snooks at their charges even while they are laughing all the way to the bank.Everybody has heard about Antulay, but more modest financial wizards do exist at the lower echelons, as for instance, in a village in Karimnagar district in Andhra Pradesh. After the recent gram panchayat elections which catapulted a new 'gram sarpanch' to the throne, he took up his post with great elan, elan which was unfortunately blunted when he found that his predecessor had apparently swept the till wisely and well.The village, with a population of 8,000, has an annual income of Rs 50,000. Even so, the new sarpanch was presented with a bill of Rs 5,000 for electricity. While he was trying to discover how anybody could have burnt the midnight oil to that extent, he dipped into the till and pulled out the grand sum of 27 paise-only. The other assets of his office amounted to two chairs, a table and an almirah, all in very doubtful condition. The mystery of the missing assets could not be cleared up immediately as the earlier incumbent had still to turn over all records to his successor. Even as the successor is kicking and screaming about a government probe into the whole thing, he will probably have to haul out his begging bowl to put the panchayat in the black again.Fashion PassionThe purity of Punjab is at stake, feel the members of a spiritual group who carried out the first phase of a campaign to bring Punjabi girls back to the straight and narrow. In a letter to the principal of a girls college in Chandigarh, these puritans have threatened to gun down girls who strut about in shirts that, see-through or low necked, are the most grudging of concessions to modesty. The letter also threatens to put bra-less maidens back in form, and promises quick and ruthless action against those brazen beauties who encase their flesh in tight and provocative trousers.In the prevailing tension in the state, the police are taking the letter very seriously, as the writers have also warned that they possess a large stock of hand-grenades. Apart from divulging this alarming bit of information, the letter - incidentally written in capitals in pink ink - also pontificates angrily against the films which encourage immodest tendencies among the girls. But perhaps the girls will be saved by General Winter; they will soon have to wear all-covering woollies - unless they somehow invent see-through sweaters.Snake CharmedThere is, at first sight, nothing in common between a cow and a snake, the one a docile quadruped with an unmentionable number of stomachs, the other a cold-blooded creature with unwinking eyes. However, in Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh, a cow and a snake have laid the foundations of a long and beautiful friendship.Every day for the past few weeks, the cow is let out by her owner, a Harijan woman, to graze in the fields. By and by, a snake slithers over some nearby bushes, climbs up the cow's leg and round her back, fastens its jaws gently around the udder. and sucks away contentedly. When it has drunk its fill, it rolls smoothly away, and vanishes into the bushes. In fact, says the cow's owner, the snake used to. come for its daily feed at the same time last year. And the cow pays no attention to its luncheon guest, but munches away contentedly at its grass.That the relationship is enduring was amply demonstrated last fortnight when some spectators tried to disturb the reptile. It reared up angrily, bared its fangs, and then went right back to milking its placid friend.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Oct 26, 2013 09:15 IST--- ENDS ---

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Spiritual group in Punjab threatens to gun down girls wearing 'provocative' dresses

The purity of Punjab is at stake, feel the members of a spiritual group who carried out the first phase of a campaign to bring Punjabi girls back to the straight and narrow.

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