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Gift Cow
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 Jaal has known it all along, of course. What else could one have expected? However, South Block should be given its due, in full measure. For, according to all available reports, General Musharaff came empty handed and returned likewise and South Block did not offer any gift to him.Jaal would like to share with its aficianados what happened in early eighties when the then Minister for Information and Broadcasting travelled to Pakistan on an invitation from his counterpart. The Indian Minister having some ancestral links with Sahiwal area of Pakistan grew nostalgic when he visited the place very much like the present visit to Naherwaligali by Musharaff. The difference being the Indian Minister was presented with a Sahiwal cow (Sahiwal cows are famous very much like the murra buffalo), which he graciously accepted. However since he was not expected to drive it back to New Delhi by himself he left it there with instructions that it should be sent across later. When the gift had practically faded from recent memory, a file landed on the desk of an officer in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting which was puzzling to begin with. When the mystery unfolded immediately, unlike a mega TV serial, one could see that a very important issue had been raised by a junior customs official posted somewhere on the Indo-Pak border. The simple query was that a cow and a calf were handed over by the Pakistani side but the relevant papers indicated that only a cow was to be expected. When the Indian side demurred about the calf, the other side said both had to be accepted and they did not have any instruction to separate the two. Now the question which vexed the mind of the Indian customs official was who would sanction the expenditure to be incurred on the calf by way of fodder, water, transportation, etc. Since no one had any clue the file, instead of the cow and the calf, travelled all the way to New Delhi to the Ministry of Finance which promptly transferred to the I & B Ministry. Well to cut a story short, the matter was amicably sorted out with the Information Ministry making provision for the expenditure and the bovines were finally lodged in the famous cattle research institute at Karnal. Just imagine what ruckus the ever present and effervescent media would have kicked up if only a murra buffalo or some such gift were handed over to the visiting dignitary and the new edition Sahiwal cow story would have been played in the drawing rooms of the South Asian region not to mention the abiding British and American interest in such matters and who knows, all expert commentators might be debating the diplomatic coup by the Indian side by springing such a surprise gift on an unsuspecting (that is only in this matter) Musharaff. Incidentally Jaal would like to hazard that when Atalji returns the visit he should choose Peshawar for the next round of talks so that both sides would be in the gateway to the sub-continent as it was in the ancient times and be reminded of their common heritage. RECENTLY ON JAAL: Et Al Diaspora Disgust Chitti Chitti Bong Bong Off Course Pol Poll: Are You A Neta Wannabe? The Raj Strikes Back The EMail Of The Species Kandahar Ka Kaana Raja The World Is Not Enough Back To Squire One Poll Gita Where There's A Bill, There's A Wait DotComs, By The Numbers GoI-ing After Veerappan The Bore-Gush Race Hack Attack! Eee! Governance! Justice Unbound Small States, Large Stakes Con Banega Crorepati Salesman No. 1 Cat And Meows 25 Years After Paswan Goes DOTty Child's Play Toilet Paper Drought And About Boer Boar The Joke's On You The Coming Of Bill T Kannan SEND US YOUR FEEDBACK ABOUT THIS ARTICLE: ?
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