Wise men once proclaimed — ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’! If that indeed were true and the wise men were indeed wise…well then…Rahul Gandhi has managed to transform himself into one sincere flatterer. So, who then is the object of his flattery? Well, hold your breath…for it is none other than the Indian Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Damodardas Modi.
Taking cue from Narendra Modi’s 2014 electoral campaign tool— which was aptly called ‘Chai Pe Charcha’, which was a strategic albeit playful dig at the rivals calling him a “chaiwala”, Rahul Gandhi too decided to have a charcha a week ago…this time…on a khat in the UP hinterland. [Note: Of course, that does not give anyone the right to call him a “khatwala”. By the way, for people who may not be familiar with Hindi…Khat = Charpoy.]
As with everything that Congress does when the “young” scion is out and about in the real world, the Congress workers went all out to get the best brand new khats they could find. After a well-rounded and well-practiced speech that talked about and promised farm loan waivers, reduction of power tariffs and higher minimum support price for agricultural produce, the Congress Vice President left the venue…happy and content.
However, as soon as he left the venue, the public present at the spot decided to demonstrate their real reasons for probably coming for the charcha…the brand new charpoys! And soon enough, there was chaos at the venue with men, women and children scurrying around with charpoys on their heads. What fate befell those charpoys is anybody’s guess…but I am guessing they now serve as souvenir in people’s homes. A memento that will continue to forever remind them of the great moment when the Congress’ Prince promised them the moon, the sun and the stars.
Of course, what baffles me is this indefatigable need of Congress towards imitating Modi (I mean…seriously, what happened to originality?!?) For the Khat Pe Charcha was not their first attempt at imitation…the first attempt was, in fact, strangely and conspicuously “similar” to Modi’s. It was barely three months back in June that Congress decided to “protest” the “failures” of the Modi government through a well-copied Anti-BJP ‘Chai Pe Charcha’.
For all the foolhardiness of the political prince, he probably needs to hire some refreshingly original political strategists, who can come up with original election campaigns so they don’t have to copy Modi’s move…every single time. I mean, come on, as if it wasn’t bad enough that Bollywood ends up copying everything Hollywood does in the name of being “inspired”…did we need the Congress to also start seeking inspiration from their political rivals. How about some original rivalry that will keep the nation riveted to their television screens as we see the political clash of the titans…[Well, I apologise for referring to the Congress scion as a ‘Titan’ … but now when I look at him, I see another version of Modi. I guess, I’m hallucinating…yet again!]
