Gurdaspur Diary: Clueless on tackling stubble burning

Despite the Gurdaspur administration going all out to educate farmers about the ill-effects of burning paddy stubble, farm fires continue to rage. The cops say they cannot register FIRs as no complaints from the Agriculture Department are forthcoming. On their part, agriculture officers claim that local politicians are ready to take umbrage if they clamp criminal cases against the erring farmers. Actually, governments have tried every conceivable trick in the book to manage the farm crisis. Sometimes, farmers have even been sent to jail. Governments have also tried to reward farmers who stay away from the practice of stubble burning. The carrot has also been dangled and the stick has also been wielded. However, nothing works. Officials are now back to the drawing board. Everybody is keenly watching what is going to happen next.

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In or out of power, no escaping Sidhuism

Residents remember maverick politician Navjot Singh Sidhu for different reasons. In January 2018, when he was the state tourism minister, Sidhu had visited Keshopur wetland. The area is an ornithologist’s delight. Bird watchers were obviously elated when the minister promised them that an international level photography competition will be held annually. It is another matter that his portfolio was changed and with it his interest in the project waned. When India played Australia in the World Cup opener in Chennai recently, residents recalled how in the 1987 World Cup opening match, which incidentally was played against Australia at the same venue, Sidhu had badly mauled off-spinner Peter Taylor. The man almost put a full stop to the Aussie spinner’s career. Later, in the same tournament, he went on to score a series of half-centuries, a development which has catapulted him to international fame. Then, there are many who often recall how Sidhu has a fetish for mauling both the written and the spoken word with a distinctive, entertaining concoction of mixed metaphors and garbled clichés. The other day, he had connoisseurs of the English language in splits. Many of them wanted him to explain what exactly he meant by some of his recent tweets. He had come up with one that read, “Not only strike while the iron is hot but make it hot while striking.” Now, this was Greek to his fans and followers. Later, while referring to the women’s reservation Bill, he came up with another pearl of wisdom. This time it read: “The Central government was like a mountain in labour pain.” Could anyone explain what exactly this means? Like it or not, Gurdaspur simply cannot ignore Sidhu.

(Contributed By Ravi Dhaliwal)