[Reader-list] Paani puri politics

[Yousuf]

We did not need one Ankita to know that street-vendors pee and serve. We have known this fact all along, yet we consume the street food with pleasure. But when someone posts a video (which is rather vague and can be interpreted any which way), we come on to the streets (in the tradition created recently by the media hype around Anna Hazare's fast against corruption) and start vandalising all street-vendors that come in our way. Our police and officials are completely useless - they cannot ensure in their normal duty that the street vendors supply clean food and utensils. MNS assumes the role of law-maker, judge and punisher, and even the CM approves of what MNS does. How many kinds of hypocracies does on need to point out in this story and how many connections should one show with Anna Hazare?

Last week, someone posted a painful youtube video of some kids heckling a donkey for fun, ultimately throwing it off a bridge (and its called "What fun"). Has anyone gone out to the street and beaten all the street kids to pulp and saved all the stray dogs and donkeys yet?

 

--- On Sat, 4/16/11, S.Shashidhar <ssabnavis at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: S.Shashidhar <ssabnavis at gmail.com>
> Subject: RE: [Reader-list] Paani puri politics
> To: "reader-list at sarai.net" <reader-list at sarai.net>, "Yousuf" <ysaeed7 at yahoo.com>
> Date: Saturday, April 16, 2011, 6:36 PM
> Anna hazare and his tribe grows...
> Mr. Yousuf is ok with people peeing into his pani puri...
> Get your facts right, anna hazare has nothing to do with
> mns, if you feel sorry for people who pee and serve 
> great.... If you want to twist and serve your own pee
> stories congrats....
> 
> Sent from my Nokia phone
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Yousuf
> Sent:  16/04/2011 6:24:43 pm
> Subject:  [Reader-list] Paani puri politics
> 
> Anna Hazare's tribe grows. I don't know whether to feel
> sorry for the street vendors or the MNS goons.
> ----------
> 
> Paani puri politics
> 
> Posted On Friday, April 15, 2011 at 02:27:46 AM
> 
> On Wednesday, Mumbai Mirror had published the story of a
> paani puri vendor - caught on camera by reader Ankita Rane -
> urinating into the lota used to serve his customers.
> 
> Three days later, the isolated story which ought to have
> triggered awareness about unhygienic street food, has turned
> into a political circus.
> 
> Ankita, who has been besieged with congratulatory calls
> since her story was published, saw nothing wrong when local
> political worker Rahul Shelar organised a meeting MNS
> supremo Raj Thackeray at his Dadar residence on Thursday.
> "He (Thackeray) saw the video and congratulated me on my
> courage," said Ankita. "He also said the civic body is not
> doing its job."
> 
> Minutes after Ankita walked out, party workers were out on
> a rampage across Dadar targeting vendors of Nimbu Panni,
> Panni Puri, Bhel Puri, Batata Vada and other street food.
> Ignoring the pleas of shocked and hapless vendors, they tore
> down stalls, overturned carts and destroyed wares.
> 
> MNS workers clear the Dadar and Shivaji Park areas of
> street vendors on Thursday afternoon.
> 
> The agitation gathered momentum and by evening MNS workers
> in groups had managed to leave behind a trail of destruction
> from Dadar right up to the suburbs including Dahisar,
> Andheri, Khar and even areas like Colaba and CST. The
> hawkers were no match for the marauding brigade.
> 
> Sandeep Deshpande, the department head of the party said
> that this agitation is in interest of the common man.
> “Hawkers sell unhygienic food on the streets and people
> consume it. This drive is against such unhygienic food being
> sold,” he said.
> 
> Chief Minister Prithivraj Chavan, who was in Ghatkopar when
> MNS rampaged its way through the city - said, "There are
> Supreme Court guidelines on food being sold on the streets
> and the government will ensure that they are followed and
> effectively implemented."
> 
> Back in Ankita's neighbourhood, the street food vendors had
> disappeared before the politics of 'piss puri' could catch
> up with them.
> 
> http://www.mumbaimirror.com/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=2&contentid=20110415201104150228029897480759a
> 
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