A Phenomenon Called @ROFLGandhi_
What he is, maybe even he doesn't know (like they say in that TVF Roadies spoof)
23 May 2019 was arguably the most difficult day for many patriotic Indians and followers of Indian politics.
A government which had delivered next to nothing in terms of positive developments — but had delivered multiple sledgehammer blows to India’s economic body, and run amok with vicious scissors through the social fabric of India — had been voted back to power with increased vote-share & seats.
The political opposition had failed to cut much ice with the voters.
Most media units had long ceased to be watchdogs for the citizens and become lapdogs of the establishment.
The country’s steep downhill slide was inevitable. It was a sickening feeling.
With many friends & family members already brainwashed systematically over the last 5-7 years, it had become impossible to have a reasonable, rational discussion with any of them.
So… On that dreadful afternoon of 23 May 2019, there was only one thing I’d wanted to do — see what @ROFLGandhi_ had to say on Twitter.
And without fail, amidst all that gloom, @ROFLGandhi_ got me to smile. And then grin. And then ROFL. His dozen-odd tweets on that day were exactly what the average dejected countryman needed.
And that’s his superpower.
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@ROFLGandhi_ has been a beacon for those of us who’ve been seeing erstwhile normal looking people around us turn into bigots & saffron zombies.
He is without a shred of doubt, India’s most-effective opposition.
With only 634,000 followers on Twitter he is still highly under-followed. Yet, the impact of what he does gives nightmares to the world’s largest political party’s over-funded notorious ‘IT Cell’.
He creates impromptu viral campaigns that have lapdog TV channels scurrying for cover; deleting their online polls, and supposedly the world’s largest political party, with an unlimited media budget, having to repeatedly disable the ‘like’ feature on the country’s most-powerful politician’s YouTube videos!
An off-the-cuff tweet from him on the evidently over-the-top acting of a TV reporter’s piece-to-cam in heavy rain had the TV channel subsequently dedicate a full show trying to debunk @ROFLGandhi_’s tweet!
His most iconic campaign has been the Change.org petition on the ‘historical Hanuman Temple under the NOIDA Film City’ Complex. The believability of ‘Professor Balwan Dahiya’ and the relatability of ‘Hanuman ji Ka Manka’ made this a knockout campaign, that even some of the vilest andh-bhakts ended up sharing it ‘innocently’.
He and his followers (now called Team Baan) have coined gems like Lashkar-e-Noida, Gobhi ji, Ma Chuvera, Vedprakash Ka Launda, Tihari, Karkash Kauvva, B&D among many others.
His mock-Russian/French tweets as a reaction to our most powerful politician’s official (but pretentious & cringe-rich) tweets to leaders of other countries in their respective languages are a masterclass in wit & satire.
His clever technique of quote-retweeting abusive trolls to turn their abuses back onto them and their beloved leader is now a popular & effective template used by many popular Twitter users to rebuff abusers.
I can go on and on about his uncomplicated genius but that’s not the intent of this post.
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The intent of this post is to request him (if this ever reaches him) to continue to maintain the ROFLGandhi_ persona.
His podcasts with Kunal Kamra were unpretentious, raw and funny — yet in my mind, they limited him somewhat to a specific region/language/dialect — and that is a massively scaled-down avatar of who he has become for so many of us.
It may appear like hyperbole and totally over-the-top, but @ROFLGandhi_ cannot be embodied in a specific person, with specific human traits like a face & a voice. He is (and must continue to be) the amorphous (nirgun, nirakaar) entity that has been helping preserve the sanity & soul of India for the last 5-6 years.
He cannot have a name like Sunil, Anil, Harbhajan or Kapil. He cannot have a Sharma, Gupta, Ghosh, or Gaitonde as his surname. His age shouldn’t matter to us.
He is an idea, a way of thinking, that should be left free to take any form in the imagination of his followers. The follower’s mind is where he lives and not Gurgaon, Panipat or Mumbai.
Paraphrasing Bruce Lee — he has to be like water.
Yes, he has to earn a livelihood and for that he has to write for TV shows and put out a commercial tweet once in a while… But I pray that @ROFLGandhi_ never comes out as a regular, common boy next door. This is not to undermine the actual human being behind @ROFLGandhi_ (whoever you are boss, you are simply awesome! And as @RedditIndia said: you are a national treasure).
This is a selfish patriot’s desire that the country’s only true opposition i.e. @ROFlGandhi_ continues to give us hope and we rally around this ray of hope as we head into dark times.
have been following him since 2014 - with his witty tweets and humor - he has given me reason to smile during some of my lowest times. I wish I could just meet and hug him to tell him how much joy he has given me
Agreed with this excerpt upto most extent. There were many earlier i use to follow for satire later the have become scumbags of bjpigs like sirjadeja athiestkrishna beinghumour etc.