It won’t do to be cowed by bull

It’s not only burkinis on the beach that irk the custodians of appropriate deportment in different parts of the world. It’s all a question of matching culture with context. No wonder aggressive bull-in-a-china-shop behaviour by foreign bovines is cow-sing consternation in Haryana, with a minister there complaining about their libidinous deportment.

Meanwhile, another minister, presumably Agra-vated by the deportment of foreigners too (female humans, in this case), has advised them to observe desi decorum. Both are, of course, skirting the real issue and refusing to take the bull by the horns, as it were. Foreigners or Indians, biped or quadruped, will do what comes naturally to them.

To insinuate that foreigners (and their nations) have lax moral standards as the Haryana minister did, is as unfair as the other minister linking scant clothing with scant safety. After all, some may discern similarities, for instance, between the alleged lascivious behaviour of foreign bulls in Haryana with the deportment of some recalcitrant cabbies in cities across India.

And the French stance on burkinis is particularly revealing when it comes to the issue of cultural contexts, given that the country’s prime minister has bared avery minimalist take on acceptable clothing there. However, the public should not be cowed by bull.