Indian satire website, The UnReal Times, has finally put out in the public domain what its editorial team has been feeling for months – a desperate longing for former BJP president Nitin Gadkari to be reinstated as party president so as to facilitate more non-Congress comedy on the site.
Firing an open letter to the BJP president was none other than executive editor, Vinayak Raman. We bring you a copy of the letter.
March 8th, 2013.
The UnReal Times,
Unreal location,
PO Box- 420
To:
Rajnath Singh,
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),
11 Ashok Road,
New Delhi, India.
Dear Rajnath ji,
Sub: Request to step down and reinstate Shri Nitin Gadkari as party president
Hope this mail finds you in good spirits. It better be good, because you are obviously going to have one hell of a torrid time soon enough, when the time to decide the party’s Prime Ministerial candidate sets in. Anyway, this might seem rather absurd to you, but the point is – we, at The UnReal Times, want you to hang up your boots as soon as possible.
We know your elevation to the post was the outcome of compromise, but spare a thought for people like us, yaar! What are we to do? Nitin Gadkari was one of the main sources of mirth and he is nowhere to be seen now. We were the saddest people when it was decided to replace him. Thanks to worthies like Sushil Kumar Shinde and Arindham Chaudhuri, we’re still managing to be right there in the thick of things, but this doesn’t mean that we don’t terribly miss Gadkariji.
You have your moments but pale in comparison to the legend. Even our columnist, Ashwin Kumar, who is always busy making comic strips, is really sad these days – you just have one happy expression and about 4-5 shocked expressions in all your pictures, whereas Gadkariji had an absolutely wide spectrum of golden expressions – right from extreme laughter, to facepalm, to a stylish gaze, to an amazingly perplexed look – he had it all. Every single one was a gem! Sigh!
These days, we’re only left with Congress leaders to make fun of. So much so that people have begun to label us as sanghis. With Gadkariji around, it was so easy to maintain neutrality. All one had to do to make sure one wasn’t labeled as pro-BJP was make fun of Gadkariji. But these days there’s hardly anyone – Yeddy has left; Sushmaji is not as prolific as Gadkariji; Advaniji no longer blogs about your party’s weaknesses. There’s such a drought of humour when it comes to your party.
In the interest of satirists, we earnestly request you to step down and reinstate Gadkariji as party president. Let’s make the world a funnier place to live in.
Thanking you,
The UnReal Times team.