Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Elephantine Task

Two stories made it to the headlines today. One is an elephantine saga that has pretty much played out in public space, consuming public money, not to mention time. Shame that it does. The other has been going on for as long as one can remember. A long time. However, it does not take up much of public / media time and space. Only once in a while when a report is published. Shame that it doesn't. Yet, neither has any effect on anyone whatsoever.

208 elephant statues, 2 statues of Mayawati, several elephant door handles, elephant fountains, Mayawati pillars and chakras have to be covered before the UP polls. So they are being draped with pink polythene (neutral colour) since elephant happens to be BSP's symbol. 1.6km of pink polythene. And at a cost of Rs. 1 crore. And this elephantine task has to be completed by 5pm of January 11, 2012 to meet the Election Commission's deadline.

Well that was the first story. The other one is that 42% of India's children are malnourished and stunted. That is around 61 million. That is one in three malnourished child on the planet is an Indian according to the HUNGaMa (Hunger and Malnutrition) report. But here, alas, there is no deadline at all.

Full text of the Prime Minister's Speech on the HUNGaMa Report.

The HUNGaMa Report itself.

7 comments:

Swati said...

A shame indeed!! The PM agrees with you by the way, he says malnutrition is a national shame in today's papers. :)....and on the elephant saga,I swear I would kill if I could!!

Sukanya C said...

And so he should...but if you have read his text then you'd see that he began with how many were better off than before and then coming to how many werent....statistics you know!

Jessica Brant said...

SUKANYA,

Your post saddens my heart.. It is an utter shame about the elephants..... It is far worse that there are children on our planet that go unfed and are malnourished and lack medical care at that...

I am pissed off ( not at you my love )

xoxox

Jessica

sulekkha said...

Sukanya, It is indeed sad that so many children go hungry in our country where we have so much money to throw around during wedding ceremonies and bursting firecrackers during festivals. The money goes up in smoke and causes noise and air pollution.We invite celebrities at the cost of millions of rupees to come for a day and perform at birthdays and weddings.So much money wasted!!!

Sukanya C said...

@ Jessica - yes it such a crying shame; @ Sulekha - I got a great idea from a couple - perhaps (apart from cutting conspicuous consumption) we could try this on our own : At any family / friends occasion, instead of a gift ... they pass a bag around for money. Whatever is collected, is given to some cause or other...

Satyasri Ukil said...

White elephants are usually covered in pink polythene...

Sukanya C said...

@ Satyasri ... haha...yes! Elementary!

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