BHOPAL: When the country on Monday witnessed the end of the red and yellow beacon VIP culture, Madhya Pradesh (MP) minister for panchayat and rural development, Gopal Bhargava, termed the red beacon a rakhail (concubine).
Talking to journalists in his home district Sagar, Bhargava dubbed everything, from red beacon to cars and bungalows as “concubines."
"Ye sab nashwan cheezen hain, lal batti, hooter, gaadiyan aur bangle. Ye kisi ek ki hokar nahi rahti. Ye rakhailein hain, jo bhi inhe rakh leta hai usi ke saath ho jaati hain,"(red beacon, hooter, bungalow and cars are like concubines, whoever keeps them they stay with that person), said Bhargava.
He also clarified that he never endorsed the beacon culture, owing to which he didn't use beaconed vehicles or hooters in cars, while being in his constituency.
Gopal Bhargava, one of the most senior cabinet ministers of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, was recently in the news for having gifted 700 newly-wed brides with mogris- bats traditionally used to wash clothes- at a mass marriage in his hometown- Garhakota (Sagar).
He made it clear that the bats were gifted to the brides to reform alcoholics, including their husbands. The gifted mogri even bears the caption 'sharabiyon ke sutara hetu bhent, police nahi bolegi' (gift for beating drunkards, police will not intervene).
Gopal Bhargava sees nothing wrong in it and feels that it a step towards bringing social change, which is necessary to deal with the menace of alcoholism.