For ‘ghost barber’ victims, panic wins over logic
Rehnuma Khan, 12, a student of Class 4, was sleeping on a bed in a cramped room of her house in Subhash Nagar area of Bareilly. Her brother Yusuf, 8, was sleeping beside her while her mother and other siblings occupied two other cots. There were seven people in the room but no one is sure as to when Rehnuma’s hair was chopped off.
“Meri bitiya subah-subah apne baal dekh ke rone lagi. Kisi cheez ne uske baal kaat diye (My granddaughter started crying after seeing her chopped hair. Something cut her hair),” said Kaisar Jahan, 62 years old.
The incident that took place on August 3 was the first case of mysterious hair-chopping in Braj and Rohilkhand. Five other cases came to light on the same day. In all, women found their braids chopped off mysteriously and some of them also fell ill.
In Mojampur village of Badaun, about 80km from Bareilly, a woman, 32-year-old Somwati, had to be hospitalised after her braid was cut. The incident took place at 11am on Thursday. After finding her hair chopped off, Somwati fainted and was rushed to the community health centre.
In another case, Tabassum, 22, a resident of Bisauli town in Badaun, was sitting alone in a room on Thursday when she realised that a part of her braid had been chopped off. “When I turned around, I saw a cat sitting near my hair. She disappeared as soon as my mother entered the room,” Tabassum said. She complained of uneasiness and nausea after the incident and was admitted to a private hospital.
Initially, local police did not play attention to these incidents but when the news reached Lucknow, teams rushed to the affected areas to take stock of the situation and collect evidence. The mass hysteria soon grabbed media attention.
“After the incident in our village, we didn’t sleep all night. Everyone prayed to Allah for the safety of women and children,” said Mohd Munaf Raza Khan, a resident of Mojampur village.
Apart from prayers, villagers have started using other means to protect themselves. They dip their palms in turmeric and leave its impression at the entrance of their houses to ward off evil. In the absence of turmeric, people use henna, black paint or soil. Some have fixed twigs of neem on doors while others have put green chillies, lemon, garlic and onion in their houses.
The more cautious ones apply ‘mahawar’ or ‘aalta’ (red dye) on their hands and feet. Women have started tying their hair in tight buns and covering it with ‘dupattas’.
Residents of Banna Devi area of Aligarh, 132km from Bisauli in Badaun, have also adopted various means to save themselves after a teenage girl’s hair was chopped off on Thursday.
Reena Kumar, 16, a resident of Illiaspur locality near Aligarh, was alone at home when she found a bunch of hair near her feet. “I don’t remember much as I was terrified,” she said when asked how she could identify her hair in the dark.
“She is just a child, how much can she remember,” said her elder brother. He added people were terrified after the incident.
Ironically, mass hysteria rules the roost in the region where the incidents have done maximum damage. Barely 110 km away from Aligarh, an elderly woman was lynched by a group, which branded her a witch on the suspicion that she was involved in hair-chopping incidents.
The post-mortem report mentioned myocardial infarction (heart attack) due to physical shock as cause of her death. Police charged two men with murder and arrested one of them.
“She (Maan Devi) belonged to Jatav community and her attackers were Baghels. Her death has pitched people of one community against others,” said Sumesh Singh, a village panchayat member. “Bhoot ke chakkar main gaon main ek ko bhoot bana diya. Isse bura kya hoga,” he rued.
The country’s biggest blue chip company, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), has failed to live up to the NDA government’s ‘Make In India’ promise by giving in to its Chinese competitors.
A Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report presented in the Parliament shows the company’s profit of ₹7,400 crore in 2011-12 turned into a loss of ₹913 crore in 2015-16.
“It’s heading towards a disaster,” says a CAG source, who is a part of the audit team.
“Chinese companies are far superior in quality, innovation, pricing and timely completion of the project.”
When thermal power generation, a core area of competence of BHEL, is being replaced by renewal energy sources such as solar, wind and water, the company’s diversification initiatives are poor, says the source.
The company, which manufactures products and provides services to private and government firms in three sectors — power, industry and international operations — suffered a huge loss in all areas due to its failure to match the price of its competitors in getting work orders.
The company witnessed the steepest fall in its profit of ₹1,419 crore in 2014-15 to a loss of ₹913 crore in 2015-16 , shows the CAG report.
Its annual turnover declined over 53% from ₹49,510 crore in 2011-12 to ₹26,587 crore in 2015-16.
The report says BHEL was aware of the challenges in the business environment and had fixed strategic plan targets for 2012-17 with a focus on diversification and innovation.
However, it “didn’t set yearwise milestones for implementation of the envisaged strategies”.
Highlighting the competitiveness of BHEL in core business areas, the report says it has been an area of concern as its success rate against competitors declined from 80.44% in 2013-14 to 43.95% in 2014-15 and to 0% in 2015-16.
BHEL SUFFERED A HUGE LOSS IN ALL AREAS DUE TO ITS FAILURE TO MATCH THE PRICES OF ITS COMPETITORS IN GETTING WORK ORDERS