Cong lists fitness challenges
Has PM Modi bitten more than he can chew? An innocuous fitness challenge – a chain which started with Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore tweeting ‘Hum Fit Toh India Fit’ and which was picked up by cricketer Virat Kohli – has become an albatross around the prime minister’s neck.
Kohli had accepted the challenge in a tweet stating: "I have accepted the #Fitness Challenge by @ra-THORe sir. Now I would like to challenge my wife @AnushkaSharma, our PM @narendramodi ji and @msdhoni Bhai for the same."
PM Modi – a good sport – decided to give the fitness call a push by tweeting: "Challenge accepted. Virat! I will be sharing my own #Fitness Challenge video soon." He also tweeted a video on Setu Bandhasana, a Yoga Asana he practices.
But instead of the fitness mania spreading, the challenge soon assumed political overtones with Congress President Rahul Gandhi chipping in with one of his own: ‘‘Fuel Challenge to Modi. Glad to see you accept the V Kohli fitness challenge. Here is one from me: Reduce Fuel prices or the Congress will undertake a nationwide agitation and force you to do so. I look forward to your response."
Congress communication manager Randeep Singh Surjewala took the cue from his boss and tweeted: "Modi ji is 'Maun' as fuel prices increase for the 11th day in a row. His Union Minister (Nitin Gadkari) threatens if fuel prices fall, so will welfare spending. Will PM Modi accept the Nation's challenge to utilise the 10 lakh crore looted through Central Excise in 4 years to reduce fuel prices?
He also released three tweets, asking the PM to accept the Fitness Challenge to the following:
Restoring the economic fitness of common man by reducing the runaway prices of petrol/diesel;
Restoring the job fitness of the youth
by generating two crore jobs, as promised; Granting MSP Fitness of cost+50% Profit to India's farmers, as promised; anti-corruption fitness by bringing back Rs 80 lakh crore of black money from abroad & punishing the corrupt in various scams; National Security Fitness by stopping Pak sponsored terrorism & Chinese incursion in Doklam, next to Arunachal order and elsewhere.
Surjewala's message to PM is: "Nation must come first. Pl forego the media stunts & accept the 'Governance' challenge.
Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi questioned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the happenings in Tamil Nadu and asked why he had not spoken on the violence when he has all the time to respond to fitness challenges on Twitter.
In the BJP, among those who flooded Twitter with their fitness mantras, included New Delhi's BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi who mounted her own picture exercising, saying "Inspired by @narendramodi Ji, I am posting my video for taking up the fitness challenge. Fitness for me is about building core strength and having a focused mind."
The list of those responding to minister Rathore keeps growing but BJP President Amit Shah who needs fitness lesson more than anyone else has preferred not to respond at all.
Congress spokesman Sanjay Jha put his own home-spun challenge to PM Modi, different from all. "Dear Mr Modi, I am putting up my BA, MA and MBA degrees here. Are you ready for the #DegreeFitHaiChallenge? I await your response with high expectations.