Slap-happy MP forced to apologise for ‘assaulting bank manager

Manda Jagannath, the Congress MP who slapped bank manger Ravider Reddy, has been forced to publicly apologise in the wake of an agitation by Andhra Pradesh bank employees, strong media publicity, and perhaps above all, a frown from party boss Sonia Gandhi.

However, whether the honourable member of parliment is genuinely sorry is open to question.

His apology is somewhat like Mark Anthony's speech in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar – while apparently unconditional, it manages to imply that he was right and Reddy, manager of the Uppunuthala branch of the A P Grameena Vikas Bank, deserved the slap.

Although caught in the act on the bank's security cameras, Jagannath further quibbles that he was merely trying to touch Reddy on the shoulder, but because Reddy moved, the hand appeared to slap his face.

The MP, who is in New Delhi to attend the parliament session, had earlier denied slapping the bank manager at all, claiming he was only trying to wake him up to his ''failure'' to disburse loans to scheduled caste / scheduled tribe members under special schemes.

Describing the incident as ''unfortunate,'' Jagannath told journalists that he did not hold a grudge against the manager. However, he hastened to add, as is the wont of Indian politicains, that the truth would come out later.