Screenshots from the Twitter preview posted by Bear Grylls
The big cat is out of the bag: India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will star in Discovery Channel’s popular survival adventure show Man vs Wild. A preview of the episode that is set to air on August 12, shows Modi chilling out in the Uttarakhand wilderness at Jim Corbett National Park with host adventurer Edward Grylls, popularly known as Bear Grylls. The PM is seen being a bamboo-weapon wielding, river dinghy-rowing, animal-loving man of nature, giving viewers strategies on something he's all too familiar with: how to survive in the wild.
Advertisement
"For years, I have lived among nature, in the mountains and the forests. These years have a lasting impact on my life. So when I was asked about a special programme focusing on life beyond politics and that too in the midst of nature, I was both intrigued and inclined to take part in it," the PM said in a statement.
It will be interesting, to say the least, to see the vegetarian leader being given lessons in survival by a man who has consumed maggots, yak’s blood and his own pee. But while the PM is projecting his involvement in the show as a way to promote India’s rich environmental heritage, many members of the Congress party are pointing out that Modi was shooting for the show in the midst of the Pulwama attacks and are demanding an explanation for it. Meanwhile, our man Modi is out here promising Grylls protection with his bamboo gun, while the jovial host remarks that he’s responsible for the most important man in India. “My job is to keep you alive,” he says.This is the second time that an elected Head of State will join Grylls for Man Vs. Wild after former American President Barack Obama featured in a special episode in Alaska in 2015.Follow Shamani Joshi on Instagram.