By Deepshikha Agarwal
RAP. No its not what Eminem and Honey Singh do. Its what Miss Rakhi Sawant, the item girl of our very own Bollywood is doing these days. Yes. Its true. Bad girl has indeed gone political with her brand new “Rashtriya Aam Party”. Its commendable how she hardly ever stays out of the news. After numerous publicity stunts (from starring in movies, reality shows, and even launching her own album) Rakhi Sawant is is now entering the political sphere with other political parties already attacking her stand and very few people taking her seriously.
The much famous Bollywood actor/item girl is now going to contest Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate from Mumbai North West. With the rising political tension all over country Miss Rakhi Sawant is doing a good job in introducing some humour into Indian Politics. Apart from the gesture in itself, she has gone a little over the top with her posters in which she is wearing a green outfit, her head covered with a green dupatta. Seeing her poster was one of those brain-freeze moments for me ! Some are saying the costume is in line with party’s symbol of “green chilli” although no such announcement has been made officially. However, Rakhi Sawant has agreed that green chilli totally goes with her persona. (I so laughed my lungs out!) Even AAP’s Mayand Gandhi called her “costume” funny.
However, keeping the humour aside, I would still like to give her the benefit of doubt. She is claiming that she would bring about changes in the rape laws of the country. In her own words, “You need to elect women to get tougher laws against atrocities. The men in parliament have lost their eardrums. They can’t hear the pain of women. If elected I will make changes in laws such that no rapist ever gets bail”. She has also claimed to be a social worker distributing laptops and books to schools and to, amongst other places, the Arthur Road Jail.
I must say she is good. Barely a week into politics and she is already picking fights with the AAP. It all started when Mayank Gandhi of the AAP made a rather foolish mistake of messing with the bad bad girl. “Rakhi Sawant ko maja maarne wali janta vote degi.” (Only those devoted to vulgar fun will vote for Rakhi) were his exact words. Her “chillicious” retort to this was“ A man who doesn’t respect women has no authority to contest elections. Mayank Gandhi ki taange hil chuki hai, kaleja phat chukka hai, uski neend gayab ho gayi hai, usko darr lag raha hai. AAP, meri party RAP se darr gaya hai. (Mayank Gandhi’s feet are quivering; he has no belly for the fight and he is losing sleep. He is scared. AAP is scared of RAP).” She then also went ahead suing the poor chap for defamation.
Although reasons are very few, if not non-existent, to take her seriously, it is still an interesting thing happening. I am being an optimist when I say that I would want to see her try and make the changes she claims she will make. It will only be a good thing if the ever increasing number of rape cases can be reduced and in due course of time, brought down to zero. If not, as I said earlier, we can still give her some credit for being a continual source of entertainment and never running out of ways to grab our attention !!
