Modi partakes AI lightening humour in sizzling poll campaign

Whither humour in Lok Sabha election campaign?

By Manish Anand

New Delhi, May 7: On the day of the US Federal Reserve meeting a week ago, Jerome Powell looks alike, had come breezing to a rockstar stage to throw his arms and legs in all directions while stamping the floor to the frenzied musical beats.

The short clip of the dancing feat of the AI-created Powel, the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, gave comical relief to the people who were glued to the television screens to grab the breaking news of the decision of the Central bank on rates.

The copycat video clip surfaced yesterday in India, featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The AI just pasted the face in the video to create a sensation around Modi. The prime minister took the short video clip in good stride, partaking the inherent humour.

Powel is 71 years old. The video featuring him grossed 29 million views in two days on the internet. If he actually had been on stage, Powell may have broken several of his limbs.

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Modi is 73 years old. Modi reposted the video clip with hashtag ‘PollHumour’. “Like all of you, I also enjoyed seeing myself dance,” said Modi in his post on the social media platform X. He added, “Such creativity in peak poll season is truly a delight.”

The ‘humour video’ surfaced hours before the polling for the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has high stakes in the third phase of the elections. The BJP has task on hand to repeat the 2019 sweep in Gujarat and Karnataka.

The dancing Modi clip amplified the tolerant side of the prime minister at a time when the Opposition is accusing him of being an “authoritarian”. The ‘humour video’ ended up adding to the campaign reach of the BJP as the party leaders rushed to amplify.

But the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections has hardly been humorous. The Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, is solely carrying the burden to lighten the searing political temperature.

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Untiringly, he recounts his acts of running away from his political partner. “Ab hum nahi idhar udhar jaayenge. Pahle chale gaye the ab nahi jayenge (now, I will not go here and there unlike in the past,” Kumar often repeats in his election speeches. He brings additional emphasis while sharing dais with Modi.

Otherwise, the poll campaign has been dry. The BJP and the Congress have taken their exchanges of barbs to extreme ends of slugfest.

Scores of the Opposition leaders, including two chief ministers, went to jails just before the announcement of the poll dates for the Lok Sabha elections. Scope for humour, predictably, is minimal.

The people bracing the heat waves are also deprived of the doses of humour. The tribe consisting of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Bansi Lal, Lalu Prasad Yadav and others is almost extinct. They were fierce political orators, but wore the silky gloves of humour to kick the rivals in the faces.

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About The Author

Manish Anand

Manish Anand is a senior journalist with about two decades of hardcore reporting experience on beats such as Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, BJP, Congress, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, and scores of Union Ministries.

His past has been with The New Indian Express, The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, The Statesman.

For the past 15 years, Manish has been a regular commentator on AIR on foreign affairs, besides being an author and a blogger.

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