What would you gift a newly-married couple? Several options immediately come to mind.
A Madhya Pradesh Minister, however, settled on an unusual present for nearly 700 brides on Saturday — a mogri or a wooden bat.
The mogri is traditionally used to wash clothes. The Minister has advised the brides to use it on their husbands if they turn alcoholic or harass them.
The mogri even bears the legend sharabiyon ke sutara hetu bhent; police nahi bolegi (gift for beating drunkards; police will not intervene).
Gopal Bhargava, State Minister of Panchayati Raj and Rural Development, gifted the bats during a mass marriage ceremony solemnised on the auspicious occasion of Akshaya Tritiya in his hometown Garhakota in Sagar district. The Minister said he believed it was an apt present.
“Whenever I visit rural or urban areas in my constituency, women complain about their husband’s drinking habit. They inform me that whatever little they earn is snatched away by their husband for alcohol. They are also subjected to physical violence,” he told PTI on Sunday.
