ULTAPULTA
Toilet training
Jaspal Bhatti

Illustration: Sandeep Joshi

Union Rural Development Minister, Jairam Ramesh’s, comment that the country needs more toilets than temples has kicked off a controversy and given constipation to the BJP. It feels that the remark has hurt the sentiments of people and there was no need to compare temples to toilets. I don’t want to get into this controversy but I certainly support Jairam Ramesh for this cause. When a person comes out of a toilet his frowns, worries and cold sweats are over for a while. You enter a toilet with tension and come out relieved. We certainly need more toilets and that, too, clean ones.

I feel toilets are most secular places. People from all religions use them with equal respect. When we travel by road we prefer to stop at a place where toilets are cleaner than food. Some of the roadside dhabas are known for good food but bad toilets. Some dhabas have arrows on their walls showing direction, ‘Toilet this side’. When you follow the direction to the back of the dhaba you find yourself standing in the open fields.

Mr Ramesh launched Nirmal Bharat Yatra to create awareness against open defecation. I hope Nirmal baba doesn’t object to it. I find thousands tweeting on the subject but I am of the opinion that your tweets and toilets should always stay clean.

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