Editor: Rahul Sanpui
Camera Assistance: Akshay
Can kites be political? The answer is a big, resounding yes! A visit to Lal Kuan, Delhi’s biggest kite market – just a few kilometers away from the country’s political durbar – is proof.
As our great kite-flying nation gears up for the 2019 elections, kite buyers and enthusiasts flocking the area seem to have ditched their favourite movie stars and are buying kites with the faces of Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi instead.
With prices starting from a mere Rs. 5, these kites have been selling like hot cakes.
Modi and Gandhi, who will be warring in the upcoming 2019 Assembly elections, have already been pitted against each other in the ‘Mahasangram’ kite, which incidentally has been quite a favourite with the crowds.
Not just that, satire too has moved away from social media and reached the skies. Kites announcing Main Hoon Vikas flying up in the sky, and going further away from the people on the zameen, can be easily taken to be a tongue-in-cheek, satirical expression in political patangbaazi.
In my conversations with the shopkeepers and buyers in the kite market, I jokingly asked them what would happen if their favourite leader’s kite gets cut. Some of them assured me that while their leader’s kite would remain safe, it was the opponent’s kite that would surely get cut instead.
Even though there was a slight tinge of politics, there was no bitterness in the conversations. They were warm and full of humor.
As to who will get to say Kai Po Che - only time will tell!
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