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Newslaundry
Newslaundry
National
Kaushik Chatterji

This is Bhatkal, where commerce & religion play chicken

Out here, it is illegal for anyone on a bike to wear a helmet. That doesn’t seem right and it isn’t. “Not illegal, but can you see even one person wearing a helmet?”

I do…later, not at 8 in the morning of Friday, April 27, the last date for withdrawal of candidature, when the sun’s out but the cops aren’t. “That’s ’coz the police will stop you if you do. The locals know that, so the only people you’ll see wearing helmets here are out-of-towners.”

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