Buffaloes are not generally the country’s pet talking subject, but when they belong to a Minister, they make headlines, writes ASHOK PRASAD
Many years ago, as a recently qualified medical graduate through my internship, I was confronted with an unsavoury situation. I was posted in the casualty department and a young boy had just arrived with a deep head injury which required immediate stitching. The only problem was that, much as I tried, I just could not find the stitching kit which was normally accessible without any problem.
Having placed a pack on the wound, I frantically asked the staff to locate it for me but none of them seemed to know what had happened. I was just about to give up and report the matter to the hospital superintendent when a ward boy requested to have a word with me in private and revealed that it was the superintendent himself who had walked off with the stitching kit.
The fact that he had removed such a vital instrument without the knowledge of the colleague concerned was bad enough. What made the matter completely surreal was the reason why he had done so. It so happened that his pet dog had got injured and sustained a lacerating injury. Instead of taking it to the veterinary surgeon, it was handier for him to pilfer the stitching kit and use it on his dog without the knowledge of all concerned, and the obvious consequences. He was completely unconcerned about the mayhem that could potentially result — as it did.
I remembered this incident when I perused through the headlines recently. What brought the memories back was the bizarre antics of Mr Azam Khan, a highly controversial politician known for his unrelenting arrogance and contemptuous disregard for all others. I recalled those very attributes in the actions of my first hospital superintendent.
Mr Khan also happens to be a Minister in Mr Akhilesh Yadav's Cabinet in Uttar Pradesh — and a pretty powerful Minister if his regular tantrums are any indication. He has been in a soup on several occasions, but always managed to brazen it out unscathed. When he noticed that seven of his buffaloes had gone missing from his menagerie, almost all hell broke lose. The Superintendent of Police, a young lady called Sadhana Goswami, was summoned and asked to recover the bovine pets by hook or crook immediately. Three police officers were suspended for this very egregious ‘dereliction' of duty. An entire squadron of police officers was deployed to locate the buffaloes, and by implication, ignore everything else. Crime-fighting in Rampur was relegated way down in its list of priorities.Sniffer dogs were employed.
And lo and behold,within 24 hours all the seven buffaloes were located and restored to the Hon'ble Minister. While the details are sketchy, it seems that the buffaloes were recovered from three different sites — one of them an abattoir. The policemen remain suspended and a Minister in the Akhilesh Government has gone on record to state that it was the prerogative of the Government to transfer and suspend any of its employees. But there was another aspect that bothered me. I am a keen animal lover, but my senses, both ophthalmological and auditory, are not sophisticated enough to spot one buffalo from another. I was, therefore, left wondering as to how the police was able to identify the buffaloes concerned and decide if they indeed belonged to Mr Khan.
I have spoken to a senior vet here and am reliably told that sniffer dogs would not have been much help as the stench in one menagerie would not be much different from the other. Consequently, I am left wondering whether the police did manage to identify the right buffaloes, or take Mr Khan for a ride. In case there is some question about mis-identification of the buffaloes, I have a suggestion for the Hon'ble Minister: Mr Khan, please go in for DNA-testing, and that too at the Central Forensic laboratory. That might help towards resolution of this crime of the century.