Kailash Vijayvargiya is no ordinary BJP leader. He is the party General Secretary from Madhya Pradesh, who has been roped in by the party leadership for important assignments.
He is in-charge of Uttarakhand and West Bengal and has played an important role in the Bihar assembly elections. He has contested six elections in MP and has won them all. During Shivraj Singh Chouhan's first stint, he was referred to as the power behind the throne. He has grown in stature since.
For a busy man like him to comment on the potential rivalry between two movie stars makes one wonder why is he trying to compete with the likes of Niranjan Jyoti, Giriraj Singh and General VK Singh, who are known to make outrageous statements only for the attention.
Vijayvargiya Need Not Stoop So Low for Attention
On Tuesday, Kailash Vijayvargiya made news, for all wrong reasons, by attacking Shah Rukh Khan and supporting Hrithik Roshan via his tweet and Facebook post. Shah Rukh's film Raees and Hrithik's Kaabil are being released this week and this is what the veteran BJP leader has to say:
“Prime Minister has grounded all ‘Raees’ with demonetisation. Now it is the turn of the ‘Kaabil’ citizen of this country. No ‘Raees’ should snatch the rights of a ‘Kaabil’ Indian.”
It is amusing to see a convoluted construct from Vijayavargiya, the intent of which is to attack Shah Rukh Khan.
Later in the day, after news reports of a lathi charge at Vadodara station, resulting in one death made headlines; Vijayavargiya attacked Shah Rukh once again, comparing him to Dawood. He said: “crowds are not the yardstick to measure popularity, if Dawood gets onto a train, crowds will come to see him.”
This is not the first time Vijayavargiya has attacked Shah Rukh. He had also tweeted late last year: “Shah Rukh Khan lives in India, but his heart is in Pakistan. His films make crores here but he finds India intolerant.”
He deleted the tweet after it drew severe criticism. His remarks came after SRK commented on the “rising intolerance” in the country.
Should Vijayvargiya be doing these things to get media attention? Niranjan Jyoti or even Adityanath are junior players and they may have reasons to do desperate and crude things to get noticed in the party.
Vijayvargiya, on the other hand, belongs to the top brass in the existing structure in the party.
What Could Be His Motive?
One explanation could be that like many Indians, he too has been seduced by the filmi duniya and wants to get noticed by these Bollywood stars and key players. He likes to sing and is a good orator. So for him, showbiz aspirations may be natural.
The other explanation could be that this is a response to the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that has warned against using caste and religion in political communications. So, many BJP leaders have taken this advice seriously and are making the effort to innovate and say the things they want to without attracting legal action.
There is now a clear pattern within the BJP top brass. They claim to contest elections with a development agenda, but just before an election, some leaders look for innovative ways to appeal to communal sentiments.
Vijayvargiya might have had this consideration in mind. But why choose films and get so personal? There are many other ways to stay focussed on electoral politics but when one is devoid of arguments and is eager to "amplify", pop culture comes in handy and they unabashedly ride the trend.
Look at the words ‘Raees’ and ‘Kaabil’ in Vijayvargiya’s tweets. The two words are hashtagged, and the objective is clear: The politician wants in on the nation’s most popular hashtags!
Vijayvargiya Isn’t The Only One Trying to Give Subtle Messages
Such messages are not Kailash Vijayvargiya’s exclusive domain. Recall what Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 2 January Rally in Lucknow.
He cleverly constructed his lines and said that the people of UP must end BJP’s “Vanwaas” and ensure its “Gharwaapsi” by voting it to power. Nobody missed the not-too-subtle message to those hopeful of a Ram temple.
This leads one to a simple conclusion: that the BJP may try and claim that it wants to promote development or pat itself on the back because demonetisation is its secular game plan which neutralises caste metrics, but the truth is that once the election fever sets in, the party feels nervous and goes back to what it knows the best – communal polarisation!
And it will use any cultural trend which it thinks is in vogue to amplify the message. That explains Vijayvargiya's latest and highly creative innovation.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)