Mera Bharat is truly Mahabharat

New Delhi: An unseemly domestic battle has broken out over the surgical strikes across the LoC. Arvind Kejriwal has mischievously asked for proof to convince Pakistan, which the BJP has construed as heresy. An incredulous Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Union minister, declared: “But he has asked for proof of the surgical strikes…. This is unfortunate and inspired by false propaganda.” Hours later, Doubting Thomases were given a befitting reply on at least one count. Incontrovertible proof was offered on why…

On Tuesday, it was announced that Roopa Ganguly, who played Draupadi in the Mahabharat serial that transformed Indian Sundays in the 1980s, had been nominated to the Rajya Sabha . As in the epic, her rise has ignited extreme reactions in the Bengal BJP but she has powerful backers in New Delhi as well as in Nagpur. Ganguly, who heads the BJP women’s wing in Bengal, is stepping into a landscape through which has flashed faces from the Mahabharat cast. It’s time for a flashback:

  Nitish Bharadwaj  Serial role: Lord Krishna, the charioteer and strategist with the disarming smile Political role: Won the Jamshedpur Lok Sabha seat on a BJP ticket in 1996. Lost in 1999 to Digvijaya Singh’s brother from Rajgarh, Madhya Pradesh

Gajendra Chauhan Serial role: Yudhisthir, the Pandava Big Brother and picture of propriety Political role: Joined the BJP in 2004. Appointed chief of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in 2015, he was caught in an epic battle that lasted longer than the 18-day Kurukshetra war. He is still soldiering on

Raj Babbar Serial role: Bharat, the emperor and ancestor of the Pandavas and Kauravas, after whom the nation is named Political role: Samajwadi MP once, then defeated Samajwadi scion Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple. Now Rajya Sabha MP and Uttar Pradesh Congress chief

Mukesh Khanna Serial role: Bhishma, the great-uncle of the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Ages later, wounded BJP patriarchs such as L.K. Advani would recall the leonine father figure on his bed of arrows Political role: Khanna, who also played the title role in the popular TV show Shaktiman, campaigned for the BJP in several elections but never got a party post or ticket

  Debasree Roy Serial role: Satyavati, Bhishma’s stepmother and the mother of Vyasa, who authored the epic. Probably, the most consequential queen mother ever Political role: Trinamul MLA. Unlike Satyavati, not very political NOT TO FORGET THE RAMAYAN (Mahabharat’s predecessor in the Hindu Yug as well as in the TV yug)

Arun Govil  Serial role: Ram Political role: Rajiv Gandhi had requested him in vain to campaign for the Congress. Last year, suggestions were made Govil was keen to join the BJP but no word since then

  Deepika Chikhalia Serial role: Sita Political role: Elected as the BJP Lok Sabha MP from Vadodara in 1991. Left politics, married to a Mumbai industrialist

Arvind Trivedi Serial role: Ravan Political role: Became a BJP Lok Sabha MP in 1991. Appointed acting chairman of the film censor board in 2002

Dara Singh Serial role: Hanuman. Some are now calling Lankadahan, the burning of Lanka by Hanuman, the first “surgical strike” in history Political role: In 2003, when Vajpayee ruled, Singh became the first sportsperson to be nominated to the RS.