VENERABLE ICONS ARE NOT OF THE NATION BUT OF PARTIES

With total confusion over political parties laying claim to the legacy of great leaders, unreliable sources say an all-party meeting was called to sort out the issue. Here are the alleged minutes:

BJP: Sardar Patel was one of us, of course. But we’ll gladly give up Nehru.

CONGRESS: Ha, fat chance, considering they were both Congressmen. But if we do give you Patel, will you give up all claims on Mahatma Gandhi?

JANATA DAL (U): The Mahatma belongs to all of us.

BJP: If the Congress takes half of the Mahatma, the rest being shared by all of us, will it give us Patel and Bose?

CONGRESS: Done, provided we have full claim on Indira. And Savarkar is all yours.

TRINAMOOL: How can the Congress give away Bose? He’s ours, along with Tagore, Vivekananda, Satyajit Ray and Maradona.

BJP: Why should we want Ray when we already have Gajendra Chauhan? But give us a slice of Vivekananda.

FORWARD BLOC: Excuse me, everybody knows we have exclusive rights to Bose. But you can take Ghose if you like.

BJP: Who’s Ghose?

FORWARD BLOC: Aurobindo Ghose, aka Sri Aurobindo.

TRINAMOOL: Oh, that Ghose. You can have him.

BSP: We take Ambdekar and Sant Ravidas.

REPUBLICAN PARTY INDIA: Oh yeah? AAP: Will you swap Ravidas for Mahatma Phule?

BJP: We’d like a bit of Ambedkar too. CPI(M): Same here and in return we’ll give you a share of Bhagat Singh, who you know was a Marxist. Also, you’ll get Rajguru and Sukhdev as a bonus. AIADMK: We bag Periyar.

CONGRESS: How about swapping

Bhagat Singh for Chittaranjan Das?

TRINAMOOL: Das is ours, the commies have Das Kapital.

SHIV SENA: We are perfectly content with Shivaji, thank you.

BJP: If we’re getting into history, I bag Rana Pratap. Also Chanakya, Vikramaditya, Ashoka and Manu. Also all Aryans.

MIM: We’ll take the Mughal emperors and Tipu Sultan.

CONGRESS: Nonsense. Akbar was plainly a Congressman. And Chandragupta and Vikramaditya clearly believed in dynastic rule and should therefore be in the Congress camp.

RPI: Wasn’t Ashoka a Buddhist and therefore one of us? We also take Eklavya. And in light of recent events, we want Mahishasura.

BSP: We claim Valmiki.

JHARKHAND MUKTI MORCHA: Nobody can take Birsa Munda away from us. Nor Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu. EVERYBODY: Who?

JMM: Tribal leaders who fought the British. Funny you haven’t heard of them.

BJP: Oh heck, almost forgot the tribal vote. Will you swap all the tribal leaders for Madan Mohan Malaviya?

JMM: Who?

SAMAJWADI PARTY: Lohia is ours, as is Shah Jahan, because we have the Taj.

CONGRESS: Will you swap Maulana Azad, Tilak, Gokhale and Annie Besant for half Lohia?

CPI(M): What about international icons? We claim Marx, Lenin and Che Guevara.

CPI: We have just one claim — Kanhaiya Kumar.