It seems that they’ve decided to end the thana culture in Bangladesh by changing the policemen’s uniforms. If they had asked us in Punjab, we could have told them that it wouldn’t work. I mean, we changed the police from the grey shirt and khaki trousers to the present all-henna green. It is alleged that it’s actually olive-green. That gives us an idea of what the Bangladesh police is up to.
The Bangladesh Police, which previously once wore turquoise shirts and blue trousers, are switching to grey shirts and chocolate trousers. The motive: to change the culture. In the turquoise-and-blue, it seems, they indulged in shooting protesters during the students’ protest movement. It didn’t help, though, and the government still fell so far that its head, Sheikh Hasina Wajid, got a death sentence in absentia.
The Punjab police, on the other hand, is not in the business of firing on protesters. They only shoot during police encounters. You would think criminals would stop trying to spring their captured accomplices, who are usually the only persons hit during the encounter, and that too fatally.
The problem is, the Punjab police has shown itself just as adept at staging police encounters in olive green as in grey and khaki. That should mean that the Bangladesh Police, despite having chocolate trousers, will be as efficient at shooting down protesters as before.
I’m still wondering about the chocolate trousers. I’m irresistibly reminded of the French poilu, or ordinary soldier, up to World War I, who was resplendent in a blue tunic and bright-red trousers. During the war, though, it became clear that the Germans were sniping at French soldiers while aiming for their trousers, which were easily visible at a distance. The French soldier was then deprived of his red trousers, and the French soldier ended the war in an all-blue uniform.
The British Tommy had already switched to khaki before the War, having experienced the sniping problem during the Crimean War and the mutiny. It was worse, because British soldiers wore red coats.
However, it was in what is now KP that the British learnt the advantages of the khaki uniforms, and some regiments switched over to a khaki field dress. The British carried over the khakis past World War II, though now they’ve become Americanized, and wear all sorts of camouflage.
Bangladesh was not solely in the news because of its police uniforms, but because its cricketers were wiping the floor with Ireland, beating them by 207 runs in the second Test after having beaten them by an innings in the first.
There are all sorts of things happening in the world of cricket, most notably the two-day Test which was the first of the Ashes. Somebody should answer pointed questions about the wicket. It only showed signs of easing up on the afternoon of the second day, when Australia knocked off the 205 needed to win, losing only two wickets in the process.
Ireland should not beat up on themselves too hard, for they need only console themselves that they were beaten by the team that whitewashed Pakistan in Pakistan.
It’s not only Test cricket. That’s seeing strange events. Zimbabwe beat Sri Lanka in a T20 match in a tri-nation series over here. Still, not having Shan Masood as captain, we haven’t lost uptil Saturday. Ireland should probably rush for a series with us.
Onto the Shan Masood of the Indian Air Force. The Tejas jet, India’s Light Combat Aircraft, crashed and burned spectacularly at the Dubai Airshow. How is the good ACM involved? Well, he’s not just overseeing the conversion of the IAF squadrons flying the MiG-21 to the Tejas, but in a bygone era he was chief test pilot for the LCA project. He was careful enough not to crash while he himself flew it.
The Tejas is shaping up to win the nickname of ‘Flying Coffin,’ which was won by the MiG-21 because of its mostly fatal crashes. Anyway, I suspect that the crash caused a flurry of activity among people in the government, particularly the Foreign Office, claiming credit for the crash. But I suspect that there’s probably a deputy director in the Aviation Division who will succeed.
