Video for video, spoofs have appeared of the Congress ads promoting Rahul Gandhi. Though no one is credited in the new videos being splashed on social media, volunteers of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) units are understood to be behind them.
One video has in Rahul?s place a child sucking on a lollipop and dressed like Rahul is in the original. The slogan goes, ?Main Kahul baba ki shaitan company ka karyakarta, jahan koi karya nahin karta (I am worker of Kahul baba?s company where no one works).?
The spoofs replace the tagline ?Har haath shakti, har haath tarakki? with ?Har haath lollipop, har haath rewari? and ?Har haath hari patti, vikas ko lal batti?.
One video parodies Haseeba Amin, who chants in the Congress ad, ?Hum yuva ko ek yuva hi samajh sakte hai, jo samjhdaar ho, intelligent ho and again, no rocket science… Congress ke neta hi hai. (Only a young leader can understand the aspirations of the young…)?. In the spoof, a similarly dressed ?Amoeba Hasin? innovates: ?Simple se baat hai, koi rocket science nahin, pocket science hai… Hame who hi samjah sakta hai jo immature ho, crazy magnet ho, again no rocket science… Dongress ke neta hi hai…?
Har Hath Shakti has a Mr Giri comparing the country with a tree. The spoof has a child, also a Giri, saying, ?Yeh desh ek ped hai… hamare jaise bigade hue bachche in daliyon se phal churayenge, tabhi to hum peedhiyon tak khayenge… yehi ek haath is ped ko saalo se loot aya hai…? Giri the child snatches the lollipop from ?Kahul?.
?The videos are the work of the Samvaad cell in Gujarat,? a BJP source says. ?An independent Modi fan club is working with the cell?s volunteers.? All contributions have reportedly come free; no one in the BJP would officially divulge who is behind the campaign.
The sources say more will be launched shortly. The makers are understood to have decided against launching them on mainstream media as they feel they have reached the targeted audience successfully enough through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and WhatsApp.
…Cong videos flash numbers to say, ?Can you trust him??
The Congress has released videos challenging Narendra Modi?s claims about development in Gujarat. Uploaded on the party website, these are direct attacks unlike the party?s earlier TV and print ads.
One ?fact check? video, ?Fudging job creation in Gujarat?, notes Modi has claimed Gujarat accounts for 72 per cent of jobs created in the country through employment exchanges, then shows the main page of the Ahmedabad district employment exchange?s website to say: ?Placement 578, job seekers 85,432. Only 0.7 per cent. Can you trust him? Let?s get the facts right.? That is the only employment exchange the video deals with.
The video ?Modi fudges China?s education expenditure? refers to his claim that China spends 20 per cent of its GDP on education. The video says China spends 3.93 per cent and India 4 per cent.
A third video refers to Modi?s statement that it is time India fixed the education system. ?But have his policies on education in Gujarat really worked?? it says, quoting the NGO Pratham?s annual education report to argue that 27 per cent of students in classes VI to VIII students in Gujarat can divide against the national average of 39 per cent, and that 32 per cent in II to V can subtract against the national 40 per cent.
With Modi having attacked the UPA over its sports policy, another Congress video asks, ?But has the Gujarat sports policy worked?? Titled ?The lying game, catch Modi?s bluff on sports?, this video shows the medal tally at the 2011 national games in Ranchi where Gujarat ranked 28th with seven medals. It draws a comparison: ?Sikkim at 26, population 1/100th of Gujarat.?
It is the first time the Congress has come up with videos to counter Modi?s claims although it has been challenging these with statistics earlier.
