A DAY after a stand-up comedian mimicked Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ event in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, the BJP lashed out at the Congress on Sunday, saying it had turned into a “circus” and called Gandhi an “asanskari naraz fufa (uncultured grumpy uncle)”.

The Congress hit back, without referring to the BJP’s attack, saying the people of the BJP-RSS have corrupted the education system, and asserted that Gandhi is standing with the students as they demand accountability.

The war of words started over a video shared by the Congress on X in which comedian Pulkit Mani is seen mimicking PM Modi while performing a skit with Gandhi during the latest edition of the ‘Chhatron ki goonj’ event on Saturday. The video also included a few clips of PM Modi with international leaders and carried a tag — “Narendra Modi’s foreign policy”. In the video, the comedian is seen pointing to the audience and saying: “Maa ko kursi do, maa…”

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Reacting sharply to the skit, Union minister Piyush Goyal wrote on X, “Asanskari naraz fufa.” “The irony writes itself. The need to come on stage every now and then just to drag Prime Minister Modi ji’s name into cheap political theatre never fails to amaze me,” Goyal wrote, asking Gandhi to “look in the mirror”.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju slammed Gandhi, saying, “I hadn’t imagined that a party which was in power for nearly six decades would turn into such a circus that is busy entertaining their own shrunken supporters.” Indians are proud that Prime Minister Modi is the “most popular” elected leader of the world, he said.

“Congress party has become a party of comedians and jokers! They are out forever…. RIP,” Rijiju said. “Do you feel absolutely no shame in mocking an elderly mother and the Prime Minister of India,” he asked Gandhi, posting on X a video of PM Modi in which he is seen asking for a chair for an elderly woman who had come to attend his rally.

Without taking Gandhi’s name, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at an event on Sunday said “Congress’s Yuvaraj’s behaviour” in his “jhooth ki goonj” programme was an insult to the entire “naari shakti”. Adityanath said any civilised person will offer a chair first to a woman, or elderly person, or a differently abled person. “But those who have not learnt these values, and they don’t have that culture. Those whose only goal in life is insulting India and Indianness… the country should stop expecting from them…,” the UP CM said, adding that such people create confusion and anarchy in society.

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BJP national general secretary Smriti Irani wrote in Hindi on X: “Jab naash manuj per chhata hai, pehle vivek mar jaata hai (When doom looms over a person, his wisdom dies first).”

BJP national secretary Sandeep Pathak hit out at Gandhi, calling the mimicry act nothing but desperation and the growing intellectual bankruptcy of the Congress. “When you lose touch with India’s values, you lose touch with India itself. And that is precisely where the Congress has lost its way,” Pathak, a Rajya Sabha MP, posted on X.

Countering the BJP’s attack, the Congress on Sunday said Gandhi is only exposing the prevailing anti-student system through his campaign.

Tagging Gandhi’s post on the programme, Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said: “Yesterday, Rahul Gandhi ji exposed the system that has been suppressing students. Who is this system? The people of BJP-RSS who have seized control over the entire country. On education, on the economy, on politics, on every institution.” “They have hollowed out and corrupted the education system. Because this system fears students. Students ask questions, demand accountability. Now Rahul ji stands with them, the fear among students has ended. Their voice is echoing across the entire country,” Ramesh said in his post in Hindi on X.

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When a journalist sought his comment on the mimicry controversy, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow said, “I would ask the journalist that if you have emotions of that extent for somebody’s mother, everyone sitting here has the same emotion for their mother and families… Whether it is you, me, Prime Minister of the country or a rickshaw-wallah or any poor… Did you report when an aggrieved mother was asked not to deliver a speech?”