RAGA’S HASTY RETREAT

IT LITERALLY was “bees’ day out” on June 8, two days after several farmers fell to police bullets in Mandsaur, the epicentre of farmers’ protests in Madhya Pradesh. The plan by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi to enter Mandsaur by breaching prohibitory orders to meet the kin of the slain farmers had made the sleepy Rajasthan-MP border hyperactive. A high drama played out when Mr Gandhi tried to dodge the police at many places on his way to Mandsaur. He first stormed out of his vehicle and walked into Madhya Pradesh when the police stopped his cavalcade at the border. He was again prevented from marching ahead by a posse of policemen. Later, Mr Gandhi rode pillion on a bike, trying to wade through hundreds of security personnel deployed at a village, bordering Rajasthan. Suddenly a swarm of bees appeared out of nowhere forcing Congress workers accompanying Mr Gandhi to run helter-skelter. Mr Gandhi was then picked up by the police and escorted to a nearby guest house from where he was taken into police custody. Police later escorted him to the interstate border for his return to Udaipur. BJP MP from Mandsaur, Sudheer Gupta, took a jibe at Mr Gandhi, saying that the local deity had expressed her disapproval of his incursion through her carrier, the bees, forcing him to beat a hasty retreat. “We consider attack by bees as a sign of displeasure of the deity,” he explained.