BJP falls back on comedian to defend itself and PM

There are comedians, clowns and stand-up comics making fun of politicians. While comedy is an effective tool in the hands of the opposition, it is unusual when a ruling party decides to make use of comedy to promote itself.

But the Bharatiya Janata Party appears to have fallen back on a popular comedian, Raju Srivastava, to defend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s record. Predictably Srivastava makes fun of the PM’s critics.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal’s tweet sharing a five-minute video clip on Srivastava’s cameo had received over 21 thousand likes and had been retweeted over eight thousand times by Tuesday evening.

While it is not known if this is part of BJP’s official publicity campaign and whether Srivastava volunteered his services or was ‘digitally’ paid for it by the BJP, Srivatsava calls Congress President Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi as ‘street level politicians’(Sadak chhaap neta) who were calling the ‘Chowkidar’ (gatekeeper)‘Chor’ (a thief).

But while ridiculing the Prime Minister’s critics, Srivatsava also ridicules the public sector, Doordarshan, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. and government schools and hospitals. Several viewers felt that the comedian had actually scored a self-goal.

Who travels in government buses, asks the comedian and answers that only those who cannot afford anything better. Who watches Doordarshan? only people in villages because they have no other option.

Warming up to his theme that Narendra Modi knows best, he comes up with several gems. “The Prime Minister knew that the Indian Air Force would need the Rafale jets and that is why he ordered them,” is one. Another gem is the one he reserved for Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. “Since HAL already was burdened with several projects” and had problems in keeping up with supply schedules, Prime Minister Modi told HAL that he would rather give the Rafale contract to a French private sector company, maintains Srivatsava.

“Who wants to go to a government hospital? Who wants to send their children to government schools?” he goes on to question, appearing to back privatisation of institutions.

After incessantly bad-mouthing political rivals for the last six years, the Bharatiya Janata Party appears to have discovered the virtue of sobriety and respect for constitutional posts. “The office of the Prime Minister must be respected. We are lucky as a nation that the Prime Minister was born here. He is like a fakir, a devdoot (an agel). Ask what you have done for the nation before you criticise Modi,” he rants.

At another point in the video, the stand-up comic is heard defending the Prime Minister’s foreign trips, in the wake of recent revelations that at least Rs 2,021 crore has been spent on his visits since June 2014.

He continues with his simplistic narrative and exclaims, “… when Modi is visiting foreign countries to ramp up support for India in case there is a crisis, people are questioning his foreign visits.”

While he was denied a BJP ticket at the time of 2014 elections, speculations are rife that the comedian will get a party ticket to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.