Cong exhibition takes on BJP govt’s ‘misrule’

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 22

Catchy one-liners, telling pictures and a dollop of satire — each frame at an exhibition put up by the Congress on three years of the BJP government in Haryana and at the Centre is aimed at underlining party’s “misrule”, highlighting burning issues that touched everybody — from the man on the street to traders and farmers. Congress MLA and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda inaugurated the exhibition at MLA Hostel here today.

The posters take cues from movie themes and popular dialogues.

At the centre of the exhibition is a poster of sleeping Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar with the caption “Horn dheeray bajayen, sarkar so rahi hai”, while another poster is a spoof from the hit movie “Sholay” on the violence that followed the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. It shows Khattar as Gabbar, asking, “kitna aadmi thhay?” and “kitnay maaray?”

Another poster shows traders sleeping after the BJP rolled out the GST, while one poster has a picture of how the government claims it is gaining ground, but farmers are losing heavily.

A number of posters depict BJP leaders, when they were in the Opposition, protesting for causes which they have forgotten as part of the government.

Khattar, hands folded, is seen greeting dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim and his adopted daughter, Honeypreet, with the caption that he will do anything for votes.

The BJP government’s over-enthusiasm for yoga also features in one of the posters. Yoga guru Ramdev is seen exercising with Khattar; the caption translates as, “Yoga is the solution to all problems of power and water in the state.”

One poster shows the Chief Minister suggesting yoga as an answer to the protest over scrapping of the Dadupur-Nalvi canal project, while other posters show Prime Minister Narendra Modi dressed as “Bahubali”, declaring that his speeches are his rule.

Congress MLA Karan Dalal, the brain behind the exhibition, says he decided on this novel way to highlight three years of the BJP rule as the government does not allow the Opposition to voice its concerns in the House.

“This is a satire on the government, which is deepening caste division and doing little for the people. We are not allowed to speak in the House and anything said outside the House fails to move the government. This seemed the only way to put across the frustration of the people,” he adds.

Karan Dalal adds he will take the exhibition to all division headquarters in the state.

Spoofs aplenty

The exhibition on three years of BJP “misrule” has a poster which says “Jab daray nahi goron se, toh kya darengay choron say?” It carries the picture of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi right above the first line of the slogan and that of Congress MLA Karan Dalal below the second part of it. Another poster has African children asking, “Kahan hai kala dhan?”. And another picture in the same poster shows another African child struggling to break free, saying, “mai nahi hoon kala dhan”. Racist, is it?