Monday, January 25, 2010

Bizarre Inclusion of the Day

Here's an ad against female foeticide printed in the Times of India today (at least in the Delhi edition of the paper) by the Ministry of Women and Child Development of the Government of India.



You can see the actual page on their e-paper here. The ad is on page 23.

For some unknown and hilarious reason, the picture of the military man featured in it (along with other Indian national icons of sport and music) is that of a Pakistani Air Force officer. I have been told it is former PAF chief, Air Chief Marshall Tanveer Mohammad Ahmed, though I have been unable to confirm it. But there is no denying that it is definitely that of a high-ranking Pakistan Air Force officer. I mean, you can even read the 'PAF' on his wings, for crying out loud.

Chalk it up to the efficiency of state bureaucracy? Or do you think there's some underlying message here about Bharat Mata?


Update:
So, yes, it is Air Chief Marshall (retd) Tanvir Mahmood Ahmed (apologies for getting the name wrong) and  unbeknowst to me, it had already caused quite a media ruckus in India. Almost all papers in Pakistan have covered the story on their front or back pages today. Here's Dawn (which also had an earlier story on its website here), The News and The Nation.

3 comments:

Jaydev said...

Indian bureaucracy are big fans of google image search. Last year, Army exhibition had a Chinese soldier aiming a NORINCO anti-tank missile. But this one takes the cake..MoWCD is clearly glad that ad is widely "noticed"..ha ha..

Anonymous said...

Yeh hai sachchi aman ki asha. Salman Taseer's picture would have made more sense though.

Anonymous said...

Actually it means that without women these famous icons would not have bin born/ made a difference in this world.