Saturday 9 January 2010

Biggest Faff of the Decade

So, here's it is! The 'Biggest Faff of the Decade' award has to be presented to someone and we've finally found the fitting winner (after 10 years of rigorous searching).

I bestowed on myself this honour of giving the award away and you'll agree that the initiative is good and the winner deserving!

But before we get to him (yes, its a 'him'...sorry, ladies!), I must let you know how I found this chap!

I was watching the news on TV yesterday and happened to see the grotesque hacking of a police man in Tamil Nadu. The cop was riding his bike on a main road, when some guys stopped him, used a butcher's knife to hack him down and left him bleeding by the road. With one of his legs missing, a ear hanging off his face, and lying in his own pool of blood; the cop was reaching out for help but didn't get any. A Samaritan story gone wrong! No one stopped. No one picked him up. And someone had the nerve to film the whole thing.

So, here's when I first came to know of one Mr. V K Subburaj, the state health secretary (and hopefully, soon to be the 'ex-health secretary').

He happened to pass by the bleeding cop, stopped, got down, took a nice look at him, got back in the car, sat there for a while and then took off to wherever he was headed towards. Probably some VIP meeting where he would talk about the 'importance of health in Tamil Nadu and how the government should invest more in it'. Anyways, he didn't even do as much as get someone else to help the cop and neither did anyone else. So the cop died.

But this isn't why he's getting the award. If he were to be selected for any award based merely on what happened till this stage, it would be the 'Having a Boulder for a Heart' award.

It's what happened next that made me realise he deserved this one more!!!

CNN IBN's newsreader interviewed Mr. Subburaj and asked him: "Why is it that there was enough time to capture a video but no one went to take the policeman to the hospital?"

Mr. Subburaj replied: "To transfer the person, we were waiting for the 108 ambulance to come because they would be able to provide the scientific attendance because the condition of the body was such. Carrying him in another vehicle wouldn’t have been scientific, it would have led to problems. Definitely, there was a delay in the vehicle."

Then the reporter asked him: "Why could you or the ministers not have taken the policeman in your car or the convoy cars? Couldn't that have saved his life?"

To this he said: "No, no! First you must see this is a bomb blast situation. Some unused bombs or mines were also said to be there. Then even the body was not in a condition for transportation. We called for the ambulance as carrying him in any other vehicle wouldn't help in the process."

Lastly, she gave up and asked him: "As the Health Secretary of the state, has seeing such an incident shaken you? What impact does it have on you as a person?"

He replied, very matter-of-factly: "No, I think in the given situation we have done our best, including other persons in the convoy, irrespective of the fact who was in that position same thing would have happened."

That was it! I heard that and thought to myself, "He's earned it! The Biggest Faff of the Decade award!"

So, here's giving it to him publicly...

The Biggest Faff of the Deacde award goes to.....(drum roll)....Mr. V. K. Subburaj for this quote:

"No, I think in the given situation we have done our best, including other persons in the convoy, irrespective of the fact who was in that position same thing would have happened."

Thank you very much, everyone! (bow and applause)

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