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  • Gift Of Cruelty

    The Telegraph
    Calcutta India

    Thursday, February 03, 2005

    GIFT OF CRUELTY

    There is something absurd, rather than grand, about an elephant being sent
    as a gift by one modern prime minister to another. Extravagant or bestial
    diplomatic gifts are an ancient tradition. Chinese, Byzantine and Moghul
    emperors, among others, indulged in it, and important modern museums all
    over the world have separate wings to exhibit these gifts, which range from
    the exquisite to the bizarre. But Mr Manmohan Singh should definitely think
    twice, even several times, before flying an elephant to his counterpart in
    Armenia. It is a cruel thing to do (for the elephant), and is avoidable. The
    creature will be flown, in some uncomfortable nether region of an aircraft,
    to a zoo in Armenia, where temperatures are now well below zero.
    Transporting animals in wretched conditions is done every day all over the
    world. This is done for the meat, and even with this functional
    justification, principled vegetarians remain appalled by what chickens and
    pigs have to go through. But when elephants, white tigers and horses are
    regularly forced to make hazardous journeys for the sake of international
    relations, then the gratuitousness of the whole thing begins to look rather
    unacceptable. Elephants are, after all, Schedule 1 animals in India, and
    three white tigers once died when Messrs George Fernandes and Jaswant Singh
    packed them off as gifts to Japan and Libya.

    Most of the feelings that Ms Maneka Gandhi expresses for animals are, quite
    understandably, not taken seriously. But her concern in this regard is more
    legitimate. Apart from other animal rights groups in Karnataka, Ms Virginia
    McKenna of the Born Free Foundation has also appealed to the Indian prime
    minister to spare the six-year-old Veda. The question is not really that of
    objectifying a living creature by turning it into a gift, but a simpler one
    of cruelty and risk ~W especially when the Armenian prime minister will not
    really be deprived of one of life's essentials if not presented with an
    elephant. Ms J. Jayalalithaa's largesse and religiosity also sometimes
    fasten themselves on elephants. But this does not involve physical cruelty
    to the animals, making it one of this lady's less culpable excesses,
    whatever its political implications. Mr Singh, who likes to be unobtrusive
    in public, might wish to reconsider the use of elephants ~W or any other
    delicate and exotic animal, for that matter ~W to make polite exchanges with
    his peers in other countries.
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