THE POLITICS OF ANIMAL MANAGEMENT IN BENGAL

[Guest guest]

Hi,

Missed this important article that needs to be taken into proper

context. As long as political parties and militant trade unions have a major

say in Bengal on important issues, animal and human, Bengal's incredible

degeneration from prosperity to ignominy will be steady and irreversible.

Regards,

 

*http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090811/jsp/frontpage/story_11346668.jsp*<http://\

www.telegraphindia.com/1090811/jsp/frontpage/story_11346668.jsp>

*Tuesday , August 11 , 2009 *

*

A zoo called Bengal politics

ZEESHAN JAWED AND BISWARUP DUTTA

 

Calcutta, Aug. 10: Formidable figures of Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and

Rahul Gandhi today took position at strategic locations on the Alipore zoo

premises, presumably keeping a hawk eye on potential monkey thieves.

Rigging up loudspeakers, shouting slogans, marching about and insulting

officials, Bengal’s political circus today wound its way to the zoo as the

Congress and the Trinamul Congress vied with each other to prove which party

loves animals more.

The occasion to express solidarity with the caged creatures was provided by

the theft of eight Common Marmosets from the zoo on Sunday.

The first to troop in were Trinamul supporters. The party’s councillor from

Ward 82, Firhad Hakim, led a procession of 150-odd supporters around the zoo

to register their protest. Few corners were spared, possibly to convince the

occupants who their real champions are, just in case animals get voting

rights by 2011.

Around 1pm, after the Trinamul wildlife enthusiasts left, Congress MP Deepa

Das Munshi reached the zoo. No, she did not get her timing wrong — the party

cannot be accused of such transgressions after the alacrity with which it

enforced a bandh to protest the Mangalkot violence.

The Congress chose to roar — helped by loudspeakers tied to the landmark

arch of the zoo — just when the animals were settling down after lunch.

Post-lunch, nothing can be as soothing as a cacophony of Congress slogans.

But the supporters of Deepa, whose rivalry with Mamata Banerjee is well

known, had come fortified with the heaviest artillery in the Congress war

machine, never mind that it was made of cardboard. Oversized hoardings of

the party’s triumvirate of Sonia, Manmohan and Rahul sprang up on the zoo

premises.

If the paper tigers were not enough, a hoarding of Deepa was also erected.

Perhaps, in keeping with the cub category, the leader of the

Congress-affiliated zoo union had to be content with a smaller hoarding.

It is not known whether Trinamul will showcause Hakim for the slip of not

bringing a Mamata hoarding that could have towered over the one featuring

Deepa.

While the grown-ups were busy making life more difficult for the trapped

animals, young visitors to the zoo were taken aback. “I was a little

surprised when I saw huge figures of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia

Gandhi inside the zoo. For a minute, I thought they were visiting the zoo,”

said 13-year-old Tanya Ghosh, who had come to the zoo with her family.

Tanya’s — intended or unintended — humour was lost on the wounded lovers of

animals who competed with each other to shout slogans.

According to rules framed by the managing committee of the zoo, use of

public address systems and shouting slogans on the premises is not allowed.

An FIR can be lodged against offenders and a case can be pursued. But given

the state administration’s ability to look the other way when laws are

broken, it is unlikely that such matters will be given priority.

As far as the placement of hoardings of VIPs on the premises goes, no law

has been laid down, possibly because the managing committee did not have the

“foresight” to anticipate such innovations.

Zoo director S.K. Chowdhury also got an earful from the Congress leaders.

“Till the time monkeys occupy this chair, animals like Common Marmosets will

keep disappearing from the zoo,” Kanak Dev Nath, a Congress leader, told the

director.

Chowdhury was suspended by the government in the evening but not before a

phone was thrown at him by the Congress protesters. (See Metro)

Tanya, the little visitor to the zoo, left soon after she and her family

realised what was going on.

The poor animals inside the cages did not have that option.*