“The Way Your Belly Is Growing…”: Mamata Banerjee’s Exchange Goes Viral

The worker was making a statement when the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee interrupted him and said: “The way your belly is growing, you could collapse any day. Are you unwell?”

Kolkata: Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee subjects a Trinamool Congress worker with a fusillade of questions on his weight in a video from a meeting that is being shared widely online.

The worker was making a statement when the Chief Minister interrupted him and said: “The way your belly is growing, you could collapse any day. Are you unwell?”

The worker, not looking offended at the body-shaming, said he has “neither sugar, nor pressure” and that he is fit. He spent the next few moments trying hard to convince his party chief that he works out.

Mamata Banerjee was not letting it go. “There is definitely some problem… how can you have such a giant Madhya Pradesh,” she said, using the state name as a pun for ‘middle section’.

The “cross-examination” continued as the others in the meeting grinned or appeared to squirm with second-hand embarrassment.

This was the conversation between Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool municipal worker.

“Do you walk?”

“Every day”

“Do you eat a lot?”

“I have pakodi in the morning. It is a habit,” the man confessed.

“Why do you eat pakodi everyday? Then you can never lose weight,” Ms Banerjee said, shaking her head disapprovingly.

The worker gamely pressed on: “But I do three hours of exercise every day.”

The Chief Minister asked him to demonstrate, and he replied he does 1,000 Kapal Bhati (a breathing exercise) a day.

“Not possible,” declared Ms Banerjee, growing more and more incredulous by the second.

“If you show me 1,000 Kapal Bhatis, I will give you ₹ 10,000 on the spot… Impossible. You don’t know how to inhale or exhale,” she said.