Bansal feeds goat, turns TV fodder - Footage of ‘ritual’ and ‘sacrifice’ buzz spark jokes
J.P. YADAV
Bansal at his residence in New Delhi on Friday. Picture by Prem Singh
New Delhi, May 10: Television footage of Pawan Bansal feeding a goat at his official bungalow, and jocular speculation that it may have later been sacrificed to save his chair, turned the suave politician into the butt of jokes today.
“Bakre ka mama, kab tak khair manayega (How long will the goat’s uncle pray for its life),” flashed a headline on a Hindi news channel along with the shot of Bansal and the goat.
If anyone was puzzled about the connection between a bakra (goat or a figurative sacrificial lamb) and mama (uncle), a tweet from Suhel Seth, brand consultant and a columnist with The Telegraph’s Graphiti, offered a clue.
“Did Bansal actually sacrifice a goat? I thought he only sacrificed his nephew…” Seth posted on Twitter.
Bansal had denied any business links with nephew Vijay Singla after the latter was arrested in a bribe-for-job scandal last week. The railway minister was eventually forced out tonight after resisting calls for his resignation and shutting the media out for days — but not before the TV cameras had got their own back on him.
For the past one week, reporters and camera crews would station themselves before Bansal’s 6 Ashoka Road residence every day from morning till evening to get a reaction from him. But Bansal kept dodging them.
Today, an enterprising still photographer discovered one opening, away from the main gate, that provided a view of the sprawling bungalow’s portico. The camera crews rushed to the vantage point and soon their telephoto lenses had begun capturing an unsuspecting Bansal coming in and out.
The wait came good in the afternoon when Bansal, his wife standing beside him, fed the goat, apparently in a ritual to ward off the misfortune that had befallen him.
“Bad enough Bansal needs a goat to save his chair. Worse, some channels now discussing ‘goat’ politics! gets my goat!!”, tweeted CNN-IBN editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai. His channel ran the visual and a story on its website titled: “Pawan Bansal feeds goat to ward off bad luck”.
Some TV channels suggested the goat must have later been sacrificed to appease the gods but this remained in the realm of speculation. Bansal is a vegetarian, though that does not rule out an animal sacrifice.
As the news channels kept beaming the goat footage, one of Bansal’s sons approached the camera crews parked outside the gate and burst out: “What is all this….”
The sense of anticipation heightened when news channels flashed reports about Sonia Gandhi arriving at the Prime Minister’s residence.
Shortly after 5pm, a frowning Bansal stepped out of his bungalow, climbed into his beacon-fitted car and headed for Rail Bhavan after three days. It was assumed he would announce his resignation but nothing of the sort had happened by the time he stepped out of his office an hour later.
“I have nothing to say beyond what I have said. An investigation is going on and I will not speak now,” Bansal said. Asked whether the Prime Minister had called him, he grimly denied it.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130511/jsp/nation/story_16885313.jsp#.UY3EGKL-Gvc