Jinnah strikes BJP again

Over a decade back, BJP emerged strongly as an alternative to the 'Grand Old Party'. Though led by 75+ leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the saffron brigade soon convinced the voters, comprising mostly the youth, that it was a 'party with a difference'. But, courtesy the Vajpayee-Advani (on and off) rivalry, infighting among its second rung leaders like Arun Jaitely, Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh, Yashwant Sinha and the late Pramod Mahajan, the BJP soon turned into 'a party with differences'. Its feel good honeymoon got over when it faced a shocking defeat from its arch-rival Congress in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. This forced the party to hold a 'chintan baithak' to analyse what went wrong. Its 'Ram mandir' agenda had fallen flat. Voters were only interested in concrete economic progress and not tall speeches. The party was caught in a dilemma whether to leave the Ayodhya issue or to stick to it. There was also a need to bring forth the young faces of the party. Unfortunately, the young brigade was busy pulling each other down in full public view. Vajpayee was now too old to be carried along. So, the party decided to focus on the old (but slightly younger than Vajpayee), faithful servant of the party - Advani. However, Advani dug his own grave by praising Jinnah on his tour to Pakistan. He faced the party's ire and was almost on his way out, when the party realised it actually had no other face to project as the prime ministerial candidate in the next Lok Sabha polls. As the UPA completed its full term, the BJP projected Advani for PM's post against Manmohan Singh. But, the youth icon Rahul Gandhi emerged as the surprise package of Congress and played a key role in UPA's Lok Sabha win. The fact is that BJP had nothing to offer to the voters barring its Babri rant and UPA bashing. Varun Gandhi's communal venom bit the dust against Rahul Gandhi's pro-poor charm. While Congress has a long list of fresh faces to display, the BJP is still not able to discipline its young brats, who leave no opportunity to wash their dirty linen in public. One thing is sure. 81-year-old Advani's long cherished dream of becoming PM is never going to be fulfilled. Amid the RSS bashing, the BJP held its 'Chintan in Shimla, where on the very first day it expelled its senior leader Jaswant Singh over his controversial book on Jinnah. The party had failed to adopt the same approach towards Advani a few years back. Jinnah has struck the party again. There seems to be no end to its worries. In fact, its biggest chinta is - Who's going to be Advani's successor? Seeing the infighting among the young guns in the party, the selection seems to be a Herculean task. The BJP should better seek advice from Jinnah's jinn, which keep resurfacing from his grave, to haunt the party. Only he has an answer to the saffron dilemma. What say?

King Khan Kaun?

Remember the dimple-cheeked ‘Fauzi’, who crossed the ‘Dil Dariya’ to carve a niche for himself in the TV ‘Circus’? He later went on to achieve superstardom in the B-town through an amazing blend of talent, charm and luck. From apni Dilli’s boy-next-door Shahrukh Khan, he became the King Khan.

“I never wanted to eat chaat-papdi and golgappe on Delhi streets as an unrecognized face. I am proud of what I have achieved and where I have reached. I always knew I belonged to this place. I don’t miss my privacy. I love my super-iconic status,” says SRK abashedly. And we have always loved him for not being a hypocrite like other ‘superstars’, who now long for ‘privacy from prying fans’. He has a say on anything and everything under the Sun. Be it his ‘off and on’ race with Big B and AK to prove who’s a bigger star, his so-obvious tiffs with Dada or his unfounded remarks on the Little Master (Sunil Gavaskar), this Pathan knows how to court trouble.

When Emran Hashmi tried to fetch undue publicity by raking up the religious issue, he was quick to slam the attempt. But it is ludicrous to see Bollywood’s self-proclaimed clown trying to adopt the same tactic for promoting his upcoming flick ‘My Name is Khan’. He and his NRI-obsessed buddy Karan Johar now want to try their hand in serious cinema after a series of mindless a la-Rahul movies. But, after making the audience diabetic with heavy doses of candy-floss cinema, it would be really difficult task for them to convince the audience (and of course the critics) that they actually mean to do something ‘meaningful’. A God-sent opportunity came and they lose no time in minting it.

SRK was detained for 2 hours (as he claims) by the US airport authorities recently for questioning and he alleged unfair treatment. The airport officials clarified that they only questioned him for 66 minutes over his missing baggage as per the rule there. But King Khan was ‘deeply hurt’ by their behavior. Dropping the M-bomb, he said he was targeted as he belonged to a particular religion, thus creating a perfect publicity background for his upcoming movie which also deals with the post-9/11 scenario in the US, which reflects west bias against the Muslims.

The coincidence is far too much to digest. A ‘visibly upset’ SRK now threatens to avoid going to the US altogether due to this unfair treatment. It is a different matter that he has always put US at the top of his holiday list, a perfect location for carrying out his Temptation tour. It is one of the biggest markets for his movies. And the best part is that he has always taken so much pride in the fact that even the non-Hindi speaking audience, have loved his performances (if there have been any real ones). Suddenly, just some months ahead of the release of his movie, all this has changed for him.

He is calling American airport officials ‘biased’ just because they refused to recognize his superstar status and decided to treat him at par with others. It is a huge blow to his ego and has provided him a great opportunity to promote the theme of his movie through a ‘real experience’.

Gosh! When will SRK grow up? He must learn to stop treating his fans like fools through such tactics. And he must also learn the bitter lesson of humility and allow at least somebody to ask him King Khan Kaun, without feeling offended.