Chiranjeevi-A political clown in the circus of Congress Party?

Should Chiranjeevi now take to political sanyaas once and for all as his highly trumped up entry into the fluctuating world of cut-throat politics has not ended even with a whimper despite gatecrashing into it with unheard of pomp and fanfare and hype and hoopla? Hasn’t his sixth sense forewarned him earlier that ‘politics are as exacting as war and quite dangerous and while in war one can only be killed once but in politics many times’ as the War time Prime Minister Winston Churchill of England put it long ago? Haven’t his blistered feet and swollen legs during the bone –breaking and mind-numbing electioneering in the scorching heat of summer served him lessons enough that the high decibel filmy dialogues that he used to dish out in the cosy air-conditioned recording rooms are no match to the oratorical flourishes, high rhetoric and fiery and fluent speeches delivered ad infinitium by the seasoned politicians extempore without the assistance of hired professional script writers of the moviedom? History has the ruthless habit of repeating itself first as a tragedy and then as a farce .In the case of Chiranjeevi psycho –analysts are unanimous in terming his grand entry into the political world simply as one smacking of a megalo maniacal cine artiste’s irrepressible urge to occupy the Chief minister’s gaddi with a Congress khaddar kanduva(Shawl)over night without realizing the need for an ideological baggage and decades long rigorous training, discipline and guidance under a renowned and recognized leader of national fame as in the case of another resounding ly successful cine artiste like MGR of Tamil Nadu.

While all this may be condoned owing to his political naivety and cloistered life in the illusory tinsel world, the real tragedy awaited him when he all of a sudden ignored the wise counsels of a think tank of well-meaning intellectuals and civil activists and fooled millions of Andhras by merging his Praja Rajyam Party with the same discredited and scam-stained Congress Party against which he trained his guns day in and day out during the General Elections 2009 .Only in a two hour-long movie does a hero with borrowed dress and dialogues rise from rags to riches and ultimately marry his heart throb. Only in a movie does he create the impression that it is he who is beating a battalion of villains to pulp and not the dupe who risks his life on his behalf. This illusion makes the actors-turned-politicians incapable of seeing the practical world from their self-spun cocoons of hallucinations and delusions and ultimately proves their undoing in their political and private life .Chiranjeevi may have struggled hard for a foothold in his early years in the cine field but his long innings in the movie world has in fact alienated him from the aam aadmi and made him incapable of knowing the real world from the reel world .Hence his pathetic dismissal and pitiable disappearance from the hustings and the incredible disgust of the voters with his political Avataar.

Further, the dichotomy between the private life and the filmy life has been more glaring and pronounced in Chiranjeevi than in any other cine artiste. The mega star who often enacted the role of a poor man and yet managed to surmount the barriers of caste and creed to win and wed the richest heroine on the silver screen had to battle hard in his real life to bring his daughter home and close the doors on her hubby-Love marriages are possible only on the silver screen and never in one’s real life is the message sent by him to millions of his fans across the state.

The polling day ‘3-4-2014’was a day of undreamt of disillusionment for the megastar-turned-politician. Having reigned unchallenged for decades in the cine world, he also entertained illusions of his invincibility as a Union Minister. He visited a polling booth at the Jubilee Hills and tried to cast his vote along with a retinue of security men by jumping the queue in the full glare of national electronic media. The objection of an NRI from Cambridge,London who was awaiting his turn in the queue told him bluntly to stand in the queue like any other aam aadmi with such critical remarks as ‘Why do you need special treatment?’ at once pricked the bubble of his VIP status and made him realize that as a voter in a democratic country he enjoys no privileges despite being a Mega star-turned-politician under the care of a dynasty-driven Congress Party.

Idealism,if any,in one’s private life ,has to be tempered with reality in the practical world. Otherwise, it could be quite hallucinogenic. The film star-turned- politician who dealt with the inspiring visions of great reformers like Jyothi RaoPhule ,Ambedkar et al at the time of launching his PrajaRajyam Party was never known for his knowledge of the inspiring biographies of the nation builders of India.Yet,he sprinkled his written speech with references to them just to create an impression in the minds of the gullible masses that a Saviour from the cine world had come only to serve them heart and soul for the rest of his life. His feeble efforts to pitchfork himself into a role that didn’t fit him, however, misfired. The milling crowds at his maiden rally , infact, gathered there not to get inspired by his borrowed script but to have a glimpse of K.Chiranjeevi-the film star and not a heaven-sent harbinger out to cleanse the society of all its ills and evils. Subsequently, he carried no conviction with the masses over his role in the bifurcation of A.P. No wonder his performance as the Chairman of the Campaign Committee of the Congress was more disastrous than that of the Vice President and heir-apparent RahulGandhi. His total inability to prevent the bifurcation of AP, proven incapacity to connect with the local population and above all his biased tirade against the BJP as a communal party on the eve of General Elections 2014 proved that he is not cut out for the role of a politician either in AP or at the Centre in the near future.

One concludes that cine stars had better confine themselves to their tailor-made roles and entertain the cine-made masses with their punchy dialogues. Otherwise, they will write their own political obituary without the assistance of a hired script writer