We need to jazz up politics. Make it more fun, entertaining and awe-inspiring like Bollywood with a hint of Hollywood. That's what former Congress MLA Surender Kumar meant when he shouted out 'Priyanka Chopra Zindabad'. But then somewhere in the USA, PC's American accent faded away.
The last few weeks in Indian politics should be a hint enough — that we all miss the glamour. We have drama — where else would you see men playing a game for a throne so well? Devendra Fadnavis, Sharad and Ajit Pawar and the Thakreys showed us how it's done. We have great dialogues as well — Achche din aayenge? The nation cheered to that. We have great fashion as well — no Manish Malhotra can beat the Modi-embossed Modi jacket to Mamata Didi's Italian Hawaii chappals for sure. All we now need is a little dazzle and a little spunk. Who better than our true Bollywood export to Hollywood — Priyanka Jonas Chopra — to be the guide on this road to glamorous fame.
She can teach our political leaders how to change accents as we pass over continents even if we are on a plane. That way it would be easier to have a proper conversation with Trump rather than just holding hands and hugging hard. People like Bear Grylls can, at last, respond to the answers to his questions the way he would have — that's probably stretching expectations too far.
PC can teach our leaders to add that glam to their on-stage performances. There's great content to keep people entertained for a few hours but the performance has to have more dazzle and should have more diversified acts. Congress needs this the most. Rahul being honest to his audience flopped worse than Anurag Kashyap's Bombay Velvet and Priyanka Gandhi's heart-to-heart did not really strike a chord with the nation either. Here's where PC comes in. She can teach them how to make something mundane look glamorous — just like she did while launching her careers in Bollywood and in the West.
But the actress can also learn something in return. She needs to have a session with NCP's Sharad Pawar if she does not want to lose a fight in her life with Nick — his games are allegedly more crooked than those in the TV series that sanskar did not allow us to watch.
We need Priyanka Chopra now and the Congress leader understands the urgency. We all should.
(The author is not interested in Bollywood but admires how the former MLA had the guts to shout out his crush's name at a rally when he cannot even whisper it at home. He hopes to join politics one day to shout whoever's name he wants from a podium and add Zindabad to it)
