Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s admirers take pride in every step of his, even if it involves clicking photographs of a royal Bengal tiger in a cage.
On Tuesday, the prime minister inaugurated the Jungle Safari Park in Chhattisgarh’s new capital city, Naya Raipur, during a visit to mark the state’s 16th foundation day celebrations. At the park, he pulled out a camera and stepped close to a tiger’s cage to capture pictures of the big cat.
“One for the camera... at the Nandan Van Jungle Safari,” Modi tweeted, along with his images where the animal can be seen growling at him.
The Bengal tiger is the most numerous of the endangered tiger subspecies. Efforts to save the tiger have purportedly pushed its population in India from 1,706 to 2,226 in 2016, signalling a 30% rise.
Modi described the safari as Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh’s “pet project”. He added that there was great scope for tourism in the state.
ANI News tweeted a video of the photo shoot, and soon social media began buzzing.
In the mix were tweets by bhakts and others who took the opportunity to troll liberals, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.
Among Modi's previous brushes with animals include the time when he was gifted a horse by Mongolian Prime Minister Chimed Saikhanbileg, while on a visit to Ulan Bator. Modi was not be able to bring it home due to a ban on the practice of gifting animals as diplomatic niceties.
The prime minister is often seen wielding the camera on his foreign trips. In 2014, he had surprised a cameraman at the headquarters of the Bharatiya Janata Party by borrowing his camera to click a picture.
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