A hilarious conversation ensued between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and a municipality chairperson on Monday, when she asked him about his growing waist size.
“The way your tummy is growing, you will suffer blockage any day,” the Chief Minister told Suresh Agarwal, chairperson of the Jhalda municipality, at an administrative meeting in Purulia district. Mr. Agarwal tried to explain to the Chief Minister that he did not have any lifestyle health issues like diabetes or high blood pressure.
“Then you must have liver issues . How has your Madhya Pradesh [tummy] grown so big?” Ms. Banerjee went on to ask. Mr. Agarwal said he exercised for about 90 minutes daily, but he had an unusual habit of eating “pakoras” [fries] every morning.
“Fries? Why? If you eat fries then you are never going to lose weight,” the Chief Minister said and asked him what his weight was. He said he weighed 125 kg. Ms. Banerjee asked him what exercises he did regularly. “You are showing me Kapal Bhati pranayama,” she said when he proceeded to explain. “That won’t reduce weight.”
She then asked him how many times he did pranayama. A thousand times, he replied. “I will give you ₹10,000 if you can do it on stage right now,” the Chief Minister said, evoking peals of laughter from the audience.
Interestingly, the entire conversation was in the presence of officials and scores of TMC leaders, and the administrative meeting was telecast on social media handles of the Chief Minister. During the conversation, Mr. Agarwal said that he was aware that the Chief Minister was very health conscious and walked about 20 km every day.
The amusing conversation gave the Trinamool Congress leaders something to laugh about at an otherwise serious meeting where the Chief Minister admonished party leaders for being “ greedy”. Even on earlier occasions, the Chief Minister has been seen giving health tips and dietary advise to party workers and even journalists.
