Shah’s animal analogy riles oppn parties

MUMBAI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Friday likened the coming together of opposition parties to take on the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with a group of animals scrambling together to escape a rising tide, leading to criticism from opposition parties that he had “dragged political discourse to a new low”.

Addressing a rally at Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex to mark the 38th foundation day of the BJP, Shah said: “The countdown for the 2019 polls has begun and opposition parties are giving a call to join hands. This reminds me of when there is a massive flood and snakes, mongooses, cats, dogs and even cheetahs and lions climb up on a banyan tree to save themselves from the water. Like these animals, political parties are coming together against the flood unleashed by Modi-ji.”

At a press conference after the rally, Shah clarified that he had made reference only to showcase how ideologically disparate parties, and even opponents such as the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress and the Trinamol Congress, were coming together out of fear of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity.

Several opposition leaders have been meeting in recent weeks to attempt to build an antibjp federal front for 2019.

The Congress described the remarks are “condemnable”.

“The remarks are condemnable. It shows their (BJP’S) mindset. They have repeatedly dragged the political discourse to a new low,” senior Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma was quoted as saying by PTI. “In a democracy, we can’t stoop down to the level of being unparliamentary in our language,” Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam was quoted as saying by IANS.

Communist Party of India leader D Raja said the remarks were not becoming of a parliamentarian. “He is also a member of the Rajya Sabha and he should remember that we are all democratic parties. People of this country will give a befitting reply,” he said.

Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’brien also criticised Shah for the remarks. “Of course we are political rivals, can we expect such language from the national president of the party in power? Basic courtesy? Too much to ask for?” he said.

During his address, Shah appeared to offer an olive branch to the Shiv Sena in the face of changing dynamics in the state and said that it was the BJP’S “heartiest wish that the Sena stays with us”. Despite a longstanding partnership, the Sena and the BJP have had tensions over the political space in Maharashtra in recent years. The Sena had recently indicated that it might fight the next elections on its own.

In his distinctly electoral address, Shah reacted to the this week’s protests by Dalit groups against a perceived dilution of the Scheduled Caste/scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Shah stressed that his party would never remove reservations for Dalits or the Other Backward Classes.

“There is an attempt to spread lies that we want to demolish SC/ST Act. I would like to tell Rahul baba (Congress president Rahul Gandhi) and (Nationalist Congress Party chief) Sharad Pawar both that even if they want to do this we will not allow it,” he said.

“Rahul is sitting nowadays with Pawar saheb and he has given him some injections.. so he is asking Modiji what our government has done for four years. However, the people want to know what his party has done for four generations,” Shah added.

The BJP president ended his 21-minute speech by asking party workers to go to every house in preparation of 2019 polls to showcase the work done by the Modi government.

BLACKMAIL Direction: Actors:

Abhinav Deo Irrfan Khan, Arunoday Singh, Omi Vaidya, Kirti Kulhari

Rating:

Abhinav Deo (Delhi Belly) is back with another black comedy, and this time he has a novel story and some wonderful actors – Irrfan Khan, Divya Dutta, Kirti Kulhari, Arunoday Singh -- to support him in his endeavour.

An average middle-class man gets home early one day to find the wife in bed with another man. Instead of confronting them, he decides to use blackmail, triggering a chain of events that are both dramatic and hilarious.

Irrfan plays the protagonist, Dev Kaushal; Kirti is his wife, Arunoday, the lover.

The plot is well-thought-out and springs genuine surprises. The humour is actually funny.

There is a cold yet refreshing pragmatism to the motives of these characters. When Dev

MISSING Direction: Actors:

Mukul Abhyankar Manoj Bajpayee, Tabu, Annu Kapoor

Rating:

Two strangers meet on a cruise and end up in each other’s arms. Then the woman’s daughter goes missing. Docking in a foreign land, Sushant Dubey (Manoj Bajpayee) and first finds out about the affair, his thoughts go to all the desperate things he would like to do in that moment — kill her, kill the guy. He settles on a much more practical route for his revenge. The boyfriend is married to a corporator’s daughter, so Dev demands money. How much? Well, that is a deft calculation of his EMIS and basic household expenses.

Abhinav Deo layers his tale just right, with all the rhythms and frustruations of middleclass work and home lives. He even manages to make some telling comments on misogyny and consent — and he uses male character to do it, which is truly heartening to see.

Irrfan is effortless as the sadistic, mean-spirited man who pretends to be meek and righteous and yet steals pictures of other people’s wives at work and masturbates to them in the office washroom. Kirti and Arunoday are competent in their roles, but it is Divya’s Dolly — Arunoday’s wife — who becomes a pillar of acting support to Irrfan’s Dev.

If there is one area where Deo falters, it is the pacing. He spends an entire hour establishing his plot and characters, during which the story hardly moves at all.

Overall, though, this is a fun ride, realistic yet engaging and entertaining — and there aren’t that many movies you can say that for.