Section:GDN 1N PaGe:18 Edition Date:190730 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 29/7/2019 18:45 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Tuesday 30 July 2019
(^18) World
Scenes from the TV trailer for
Man vs Wild with Narendra
Modi and Bear Grylls
Modi styles himself as an eco-friendly
man of action in Bear Grylls TV show
Vidhi Doshi and
Rebecca Ratcliff e Delhi
India’s prime minister, Narendra
Modi, has fi lmed a wilderness survival
television programme with the
celebrity adventurer Bear Grylls.
The show is the latest in a series
of media appearances in which the
68-year-old leader projects himself as
a man of action and champion of the
environment, evoking comparisons
with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
A trailer for the programme, Man vs
Wild, which is due to be broadcast in
India on 12 August , shows Grylls and
Modi cutting through forests, sniffi ng
animal dung and fl oating down a river
on a makeshift raft.
Modi’s attempts to cast himself
as a symbol of masculinity, strength
and robust health are part of a pitch
that appeals to his party’s nationalist
voter base. “He is the alpha male.
He will not lose even a single oppor-
tunity to project himself as the man
with the 56-inch chest,” said Nilanjan
Mukhopadhyay, Modi’s biographer,
referring to a claim Modi made on his
fi rst campaign trail in 2014. “He wants
to be seen as the biggest and most pop-
ular, globally accepted political leader
from India ever. He wants to have
iconic status globally .”
In recent months, Modi has also
appeared in images that show him
meditating in a Himalayan cave and
doing early morning yoga exercises.
Promoting the programme, Modi
tweeted: “India – where you fi nd lush
green forests, diverse wildlife, beau-
tiful mountains and mighty rivers.
Watching this programme will make
you want to visit diff erent parts of
India and add to discourse of envi-
ronmental conservation.”
The programme caused controversy
after the Indian Express reported that
Modi was likely to have been fi lm-
ing with Grylls on the day of a terror
strike at Pulwama, when extremists
from neigh bouring Pakistan killed 40
Indian security personnel last month.
Reports suggested Modi delayed
making a statement after the attack
because he had been fi lming.
The Guardian has been unable to
independently confi rm whether the
two events coincided.
Meanwhile, Bhavreen Kandhari,
an activist with Extinction Rebel-
lion India, said Modi’s pro-business,
pro- development government had
contribute d to India’s environmental
destruction, and ridiculed the UN’s
decision last year to honour Modi with
a Champions of the Earth award.
“I am standing in the most polluted
city in the world,” she said, speaking by
phone in Delhi. “My children’s lungs
are black. There is no day when I don’t
get calls about trees being cut down.
There is absolute devastation.”
Modi’s government has made
huge international commitments to
increase India’s solar power produc-
tion but has also approved mining
projects and infrastructure schemes
that will result in deforestation.
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