There is a popular adage, ‘When Rome was burning, Nero was playing the flute.’ For those unversed, Nero was the Roman Emperor when the Great Fire destroyed much of the city. In the present context, the Nero, we are talking about is not a king; rather, he is a ‘pidi.’ You must be familiar with ‘pidi’ – a pet that follows the dictates of its master. Many pidis are roaming around society, pretending to be YouTubers. They speak up and repeat their master’s scripts at the time of their master’s choosing, and when their master becomes silent, they go into hiding.
In our analogy, Rome is the symbolic empire built on the number of Lok Sabha MPs. Incidentally, this empire has been crumbling since 2014 due to its master’s neglect. However, these pidis, just like Nero, are doing the bidding for their master, offering consolation and inflating false hopes. One such pidi is Ravish Kumar, who needs no introduction. Nevertheless, since he is going on leave, just like his master, it’s worth mentioning.
All seven phases in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections have concluded. The results will be announced on 4th June. Exit polls show that the opposition parties are nowhere in the race, and the situation on the ground is more or less the same. However, YouTubers like Ravish Kumar are showing a picture of the I.N.D.I. Alliance meeting that took place on 1st June in Delhi to claim that the opposition alliance is winning the 2024 Lok Sabha elections with 295+ seats. These are the words of their master, but even the master is just a ‘mask’; in such a situation, ‘Pidi’ Babu is announcing victory. Because no one watches the news on TV channels, people only watch the YouTube channel of ‘Pidi Nero’ Kumar.
Anyway, the only reason for writing all this is that last night, the damn YouTube algorithm suggested, ‘Boss, watch this ‘Shabash Opposition’ video since you watched the previous one too.’ This video is about 22 minutes long, with the bosses blabbering for 8 minutes, and for 8-10 minutes, the self-proclaimed expert of ‘pidi media’ is seen repeating the bosses’ words. In the remaining minutes, he talks about how many subscribers his channel has gained and how much viewership it has received, as well as his plans to go on vacation. The sadness was clearly visible as he couldn’t wear a tie and couldn’t be a part of the newsroom, but he still said he was happy just for the sake of saying something.
In the video, Ravish Kumar said that Mallikarjun Kharge has claimed that the I.N.D.I. alliance will get 295+ seats. A total of two dozen leaders gathered in Delhi, making it a historic occasion. However, everything else that Ravish Kumar emphasised was a blatant lie.
United opposition stood firm: A blatant lie
What can be said about this? Mamata Banerjee, who claims to be part of the I.N.D.I. alliance, booted Congress and the Left out of West Bengal. In Punjab, Bhagwant Mann’s decision took precedence over Arvind Kejriwal’s decision and AAP bid farewell to Congress there. AAP and Congress came together in Delhi and Gujarat, but by then the fight had turned. In UP, an alliance was formed, and while Mamata didn’t leave a single seat in Bengal, she made a deal with Akhilesh to secure her own candidate in UP. With some luck, Akhilesh managed to get one seat in MP, but the nomination of his candidate was canceled. In some places, Congress candidates deserted, while in others, they couldn’t even find proposers. The whole world saw the coordination, or lack thereof, between the NCP (SCP), Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress in Maharashtra. Sharad Pawar was aiming to become the leader of the I.N.D.I. alliance, but now he doesn’t even have his party, and Uddhav Thackeray’s situation is quite similar.
In such a scenario, I struggle to comprehend where the unity lies in the alliance forged by Nitish Kumar and named by Mamata Banerjee. If this unity isn’t evident within the alliance, then what unity is ‘pidi’ referring to?
‘Pidi’ Kumar is acting to show himself indifferent towards TRP, the glamour of Newsroom as he deliberately left his ground reporting, ‘Ravish ki Report’ to enjoy the space of Prime Time shows and sit there wearing suit, boot, and tie. He did the same for over a decade, but now is trying to portray himself as helpless and destitute to urge people to like, share, and subscribe to his channel and putting a sad face for the same.
