By Vinati Bhola:
The political tousle between the national parties, Congress and BJP is eternal. We all have been critically observing the tactics of both these parties for the upcoming elections for quite some time now. Narendra Modi v. Rahul Gandhi is the root subject of most of the debates in almost every household across the country. It amazes me how these political parties come up with extraordinary ideas against one another, attracting as much support – and in turn, votes in their kitty – as they can.
The latest card is played by Congress against BJP. It is surprisingly, in guise of an online game named ‘Fekuexpress’. The game specifically mocks at claims of Gujarat’s Chief Minister Narendra Modi. It asks users to predict his lies and to the winners, it promises two free tickets of the recent Shahrukh Khan’s movie Chennai Express which, needless to say, also inspired the unusual name of the game.
To many, it seems that Congress’ Fekuexpress is a desperate attempt to give a striking reply to BJP’s action of labelling their ace Rahul Gandhi as Pappu. However, the top leaders of both the parties never overtly took part or encouraged such actions, until now. The former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Mr. Digvijay Singh officially launched the site fekuexpress.com with an extremely sleazy tag line ‘Feku Bumper Dhamaka! Predict and Win!’ and indulged in passing of unpleasant comments against Modi. To see a leader of high prestige indulge in such lame one-liners is very disheartening because, in the end, it is these people who steer the nation in some way or the other.
‘Fekuexpress’ has already registered over 13,0000 hits. Given that it is promoted by the top Congress officials, the statistics do not astonish me. In fact, I wonder the time and energy invested in devolving such childlike ploys and how it could have been put to a lot better use like debating on relevant issues.
Coming to the ever famous question swirling around these days: Who do you want to be the PM? I’m really perplexed and a little agitated too. The main choices that I have are the ones joking around insensitively with ‘Feku’ or ‘Pappu’ tricks. They are behaving like two little kids in middle school competing to be the monitor of the class. I don’t want my leader to be of an unfledged and immature category. I want a righteous human being whose action projects that my country’s future is in good hands. I want my leader to be sensitive enough to accept his role as a leader and not just wave off the responsibility by saying that we should not ask how our politicians would solve a problem instead question ourselves. (In special reference to what Rahul Gandhi told to a JNU student recently, on how to create awareness about internet in Government schools.) I want my leader to represent us, not just in black and white but in real world, in the practical world.
Because serving as the Prime Minister of India is no child’s play.