Is Rahul’s Pidi joke way ahead of its time?

It seems Rahul Gandhi's video on his pet dog Pidi is causing great distress to the Congress.

New Delhi, Oct 30: The biggest joke is that India simply can't take jokes.

That is why, every now and then, anyone with a funny bone who have dared to take on politicians, and social and religious dogmas, to name a few things 'close' to India's heart, have faced the music.

The recent case in point is that of a stand-up comic Shyam Rangeela, who was asked by television channel Star Plus not to impersonate Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in one of its comedy shows, probably fearing backlash from the VIPs.

The TV channel, which has been slammed by champions of "freedom of speech" for "self-censorship", was simply playing safe, looking at the cases against comedians and critics of powerful people.

So, in this 'insane situation', where currently we are living in, when even a mundane joke on a cow or a pig might land you in a jail, Rahul has adopted the "humour" route to reach out to people and gain popularity.

Right from slamming PM Modi (Rahul's biggest detractor) to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Gandhi scion in recent times has come up with some of the smartest lines laced with sarcasm and humour to attack his opponents on Twitter.

The result, his followers have exponentially increased within a short period of time and his tweets have been retweeted more than Modi's (the PM has 36 million followers and Rahul has 4 million followers on the micro-blogging site) tweets.

It's a kind of "social media" victory for Rahul which the BJP alleged has been fueled by bots or software-driven accounts that automate actions like retweets and likes, to inflate following on the site.

Bots or no bots (something which even the BJP has been also accused of indulging in), one thing is clear that Rahul and his social media team, headed by actor-politician Divya Spandana (popularly known as Ramya), are heavily relying on "fun and laughter".

The comic aspect in Rahul's online avatar is not only restricted to target his rivals, but the "self-criticism" tone adopted by him is something rare to witness these days.

Recently, during his tour to the United States, which all started the latest reinvention in the Congress VP's image, Rahul admitted that Modi was a better speaker than him.

While "confessing", he had a smirk on his face, a tell-tale indication that it's the "powerful speeches" of Modi which holds the fortress of the PM's popularity. Earlier also on many occasions, when he erred in citing figures or names, Rahul quickly admitted that he "doesn't know everything".

The openness for self-criticism has definitely helped Rahul gain a section's support and sympathy. But at a time when chest-thumping is the latest political mantra, will Rahul's modesty and humour work?

Probably not, looking at how his Sunday's Pidi joke backfired.

On Sunday, in order to slam his adversaries for accusing him that someone else is tweeting on his behalf, the Congress VP posted a video of his pet dog, Pidi, on the micro-blogging site "revealing" who "actually" posts his tweets.

Ppl been asking who tweets for this guy..I'm coming clean..it's me..Pidi..I'm way 😎 than him. Look what I can do with a tweet..oops..treat! pic.twitter.com/fkQwye94a5

— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) October 29, 2017

It was a funny video of a puppy doing some amazing tricks as instructed by its owner. It was a cryptic message of sort which tried to tell critics that Rahul doesn't engage anyone (read dogs) to tweet on his behalf.

Instead of playing along with Rahul, his opponents started comparing Rahul with a dog by posting the Pidi video a thousand times. In fact, the hashtag, #Pidi, was a top trend on Twitter on Sunday.

Among the first few to comment on the Pidi joke was former Congressman and current BJP minister from Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, who said, "Sir @OfficeOfRG, who knows him better than me. Still remember you busy feeding biscuits to him while we wanted to discuss urgent Assam's issues."

While leaving the Congress, Sarma alleged that Rahul has no time to listen to the issues raised by the grass-root level leaders. On many occasions, the former Congress leader stated that Rahul preferred to spend time with his pets when he tried to meet him in Delhi to talk about the party's problems in the state.

Thereafter, a series of tweets mocked Rahul and the Congress for using Pidi to tweet on behalf of the party's VP, without understanding the joke for sure. Sample this one from the BJP's IT cell head Amit Malviya:

Pidi लाओ, Congress बचाओ.. pic.twitter.com/A677QSIvah

— Amit Malviya (@malviyamit) October 29, 2017

Rahul is not new to criticism. Everyone loves to crack a joke on his behalf for behaving like a sloth in the high voltage political space of the country. Since the time he joined politics, the Congress VP has been facing vitriolic ridicule.

The member of Parliament (MP) from Amethi, Uttar Pradesh has been named and shamed almost on a daily basis. His detractors have even given him pet names like Pappu and Prince.

Now, as Rahul jumps from Pappu to Pidi joke, humour has once again become the biggest casualty.

OneIndia News