Dehorning Rhinos to End Poaching : Theory of the Absurd!

The first time that I heard the government of Assam was planning to dehorn Rhinos to as a means of conservation, I thought it was a joke. And so I laughed. It reminded me of a folk tale where a man ate rice off the floor to prevent stealing of his plates.

Courtesy: Deviant Art

Today, after many weeks , I am still laughing. Because, it seems, the government is indeed serious about severing the rhinos' horns (so what if its not life-threatening?) to keep the poachers at bay. In other words, it is serious about following that man that ate the rice off the floor! 

But, the question is, why would anyone cook up such a plan?

Two words come to my mind: 1) desperation and 2) laziness. Assam - the only natural habitat of the one-horn rhinos has always been a target of wildlife smugglers and poachers.The largest number of the rhinos (2500) are found in Kaziranga national park. And, 41 rhinos have been killed in 2013 by poachers in this Kaziranga park alone. 

Badmouthing Women: Disorder of the Day

This week the world saw British Prime Minister David Cameron apologizing for some derogatory comments he had made earlier about two of his colleagues. Cameron first told Angela Eagle - a senior Labor MP and the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, "calm down, dear'' while replying to a question in the House of Commons. Later, he also passed a crude remark about Tory MP Nadine Dorries, calling her sexually frustrated.

Ugly the comments sure were, but I would say that Mr. Cameroon is at least man enough to apologize. Some even don’t have that ability. And one such person that I can think of right now is the late Pramod Mahajan –a former minister from Mumbai.

In 1999 Mahajan – a senior leader of India’s main opposition party BJP, hurled insults at Sonia Gandhi, the Congress party president and the then PM hopeful, equating her with Monica Lewinsky. Not satisfied with this, he later went one step ahead and said that Sonia Gandhi’s only contribution to India was producing two babies and adding to the country’s growing population. It’s a cheap, devoid of all decency and respect for women and saw widespread protests. But Mahajan never apologized!