From River Swims to Roasts: Inside the BJP-Congress “Battle of Reels”
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju swims in an Arunachal river. (Image video grab)
By KUMAR VIKRAM
India’s biggest political rivals have found a new arena for their sparring — Instagram Reels and X threads about fitness, swimming, and who’s the bigger “khiladi.”
New Delhi, August 25, 2026 — Indian politics has never lacked for theatrics, but this week’s flashpoint wasn’t a parliamentary showdown or a policy fight — it was a video of a Union minister swimming in a river. What followed was a rapid-fire exchange between the BJP and Congress that showcased how much of the two parties’ rivalry now plays out not in speeches, but in reels, quote-tweets, and one-liners engineered for social media.
It Started With a Swim
Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju posted videos of himself swimming in a fast-flowing river in Arunachal Pradesh, using the moment to take a good-natured jab at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who has often spoken publicly about swimming as part of his own fitness routine. “Mein yahan ka khiladi hun (I am the player here),” Rijiju wrote, framing Arunachal’s rivers as a different beast entirely from a swimming pool or a calmer river like the Yamuna.
Rijiju elaborated further in his own posts, explaining the technique differences: “In raging rivers, our head should be up, not down as those swimming coaches tell & our body should be more upright, not flat as we do in normal swimming.” He added that negotiating tough rivers had been “child’s play” for him since childhood, and pushed back on comparisons to Gandhi directly: “Many people are saying that I’m also doing like Rahul Gandhi… I don’t take training as these are child’s play for me since childhood. My life is full of adventurous.”
This wasn’t an isolated jab — it’s the latest in a running, mostly good-humoured rivalry between the two leaders over fitness, including a conversation in Parliament last year and a jiu-jitsu challenge Gandhi floated to Rijiju earlier this year.
The Clapback
Not everyone found it good-humoured. X user Reyhan John responded to Rijiju directly with a sharper edge, writing: “First learn how to dive in water before challenging Rahul Gandhi on your ‘WhatsApp University’ trained fitness Mr. RiJiJu” — invoking the now-familiar “WhatsApp University” jibe often used by BJP critics to mock what they characterize as misinformation-driven political messaging.
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Congress Piles On
Congress leader Pawan Khera used the moment to widen the target, framing the entire exchange as evidence of how much Rahul Gandhi occupies BJP leaders’ attention. “Imagine how badly Rahul Ji has gotten under the BJP’s skin,” Khera wrote on X. “On one hand, @KirenRijiju can’t even go for a half-naked swim without invoking @RahulGandhi. On the other, senior citizen @girirajsinghbjp has been reduced to calling himself a 74-year-old ‘new baby born.’” He closed with a pointed Hindi jab directed at Gandhi himself: “Ye kya haal kar rakha hai aapne inn sab ka Rahul ji?” — roughly, “What state have you reduced all of them to, Rahul ji?”
Khera’s reference to Union Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh — who turns 74 in September — reflects his own characterization of separate BJP social media activity; it wasn’t independently verified as part of this exchange, but fits the broader point Khera was making about a pattern of BJP leaders’ online content becoming fodder for Congress mockery.
Later, Rijiju joined the issue with Khera, threatening (mockingly) that he will “report the indiscipline to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.” Khera had previously faced a criminal case in Assam, while now being on a bail.
Why This Keeps Happening
None of this is entirely new terrain for either party. Rijiju and Gandhi’s public banter around fitness has become something of a recurring bit: the exchange traces it back to a filmed conversation between the two in Parliament, where Gandhi reportedly asked Rijiju about his workout routine and invited him to train together, followed by Gandhi’s jiu-jitsu challenge earlier this year and a birthday exchange in June where Gandhi asked, “When are we doing our jiu-jitsu session?”
What’s changed is less the substance of the rivalry than its format. Where India’s political class once reserved its sharpest lines for press conferences and parliamentary debate, exchanges like this one now play out almost entirely through short video clips and quote-tweets — a “battle of reels”where a river swim, a birthday wish, or a single word choice can become the day’s political talking point, amplified by supporters and opponents alike within hours.
Light as this particular exchange was, it sits inside a far more adversarial overall relationship between Rijiju and Gandhi — one that has included sharper clashes over Gandhi’s “vote chori” allegations against the Election Commission and past disputes over Gandhi’s remarks on Chinese border activity. That contrast is arguably the real story here: the same two political figures capable of exchanging genuinely barbed accusations on serious governance questions are, within weeks, swapping jokes about swimming technique — a reminder of how fluidly India’s political discourse now moves between substance and spectacle, often within the same social media feed.
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