A new political mess is brewing between Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) following Comedian Pulkit Mani’s Machiavellian act against Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ programme in Indore.
The dispute kicked off when a video taken at the September 19 event made the rounds in social media. Mani mimics Modi’s mannerisms and style of speech, and references the Prime Minister’s engagements with foreign leaders, his mother and a coin trick with kids. He also repeated a pattern of in public usage where he said the word “my friend” repeatedly (like Modi on his public interactions with foreign leaders).
The BJP also said that the act had revealed that Modi had been mocked by an old woman earlier. The party’s national account in X chided the episode saying the image present a contrast between a more civilized politics and political showmanship. In the video that was published on the internet, one can see Gandhi laughing during the portion.
There was also an attack on the Congress leader by a number of BJP leaders. Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi said Gandhi and the Congress were breaking political barriers while Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that happenings in relation to a mother need not be subjected to mockery and politics. BJP spokesman CR Kesavan also mailed Gandhi for making his appearance during the show. These are BJP leaders’ description of the incident.
The incident has become another flash point between the two groups, concentrating on the seemingly non-goal-centric aspect of Rahul Gandhi’s Indore programme, comedian’s ‘show’ and its response.
The event ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ itself was run as a youth outreach programme wherein Gandhi addressed the students and spoke about education, employment, and an importance to them being able to question the system.