Now Modi features on I-Day kites too

Flying high

After making a splash on rakhis this Rakshabandhan, PM Narendra Modi is now the Independence Day mascot too.

Wholesale markets across Old Delhi – Chandni Chowk, Sadar Bazar and Lal Kuan – which traditionally sell kites at this time – are flooded with the paper planes flashing pictures of the BJP icon. 

Most of these show him in his trademark kurta and sleeveless jacket, while some others have him in ethnic Gujarati outfit complete with the turban. The latter are probably leftovers from Makar Sankranti earlier this year, when he had again become the popular face on kites as the most looked-forward-to PM candidate. 

The aggression with which he is now presiding over the Independence Day kite market, however, is much more fascinating and eye-catching.

Amit of Ravi Shankar Patang Centre in Sadar Bazar, who has such kites attractively arranged right across his shop, says, “Usually around this time, we have posters of films, which are going to be released around Diwali, on kites. We believe those who manufacture these kites in UP have some kind of a tie-up with the film industry for promotion purpose.”

“But this time, the PM has sidelined all of these. We do have kites featuring Salman Khan and his upcoming film Kick, also the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Happy New Year. But these are few and far between. What is selling is Narendra Modi kites.”

Almost all of these are saffron in colour with PM Modi’s face placed prominently in the middle. A ‘Mahanayak’ is printed in bold at the bottom while one can read ‘Acche Din Aa Hi Gaye’ on the top. 

Various other slogans are scribbled in Gujarati across the kites.   

 Kite seller Deepak Gupta in Chandni Chowk explains this with the argument that the kites have been manufactured in Gujarat, “PM Modi’s State has a huge polythene kite making industry besides the paper kite industry in Bareilly and Rampur in UP, designer kites made in Jaipur, Rajasthan, and the big cloth kites coming from China.”“Naturally, we think Gujarati kite makers are very happy at Modi being elevated to the position of PM and have gone on an overdrive making Narendra Modi kites.”

Gujaratis in Delhi shopping for kites, of course, couldn’t be happier. Ramesh Tank from Surat, who we found hunting for kites in Lal Kuan, said, “It’s nice to see PM Modi’s pictures on kites. This one, for example,” he read out a Gujarati print on a kite for us, “says, ‘Gujarat ka sankalp: Vikas, Vikas aur Vikas.”

“These will be soaring in the sky like our aspirations as a country very soon.”