The theft of a blue WagonR car, once used by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, has the capital in a tizzy and social media chattering non-stop.
The car, in the possession of AAP’s youth wing in-charge Vandana Singh, was stolen right outside the Delhi Secretariat on Thursday afternoon.
Nicknamed ‘AAP Mobile,’ the car had hit the limelight when it famously hosted a Cabinet meeting amid a protest. The hatchback was software engineer Kundan Sharma’s donation to Kejriwal, when the AAP chief was riding high in his political career in January 2013.
Soon after the car went missing, the Delhi police had received a formal complaint. They were quick to examine the CCTV footage, but the blurred visuals gave them no clue.
The WagonR was AAP’s answer to the ‘Popemobile’ used by the Vatican Pope. It was also a symbol of the party’s ‘aam aadmi’ credentials.
In January 2014, the hatchback was back in news as Kejriwal kicked off a protest against the Delhi police outside Rail Bhavan. He would even sleep in the car and hold a Cabinet meeting right inside.
Kejriwal was quick to hatch on to the hatchback theft to target the NDA government at the Centre. He took to Twitter to retweet tweets that hit the Delhi Police, controlled by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Here’s one tweet: “Question for Delhi Police — if the thieves are so emboldened near Delhi Secretariat, what will be the law and order in other places.”
Twitterati go berserk
Twitterati switched to top gear as Kejriwal’s stolen ‘WagonR’ began trending big time. Over 3,000 tweets helped the topic trend, as trolls dived in, poking fun laced with wit, sarcasm and political innuendo.
Leading the pack was Ankit Singh, who tweeted: “Arvind Kejriwal’s world famous blue Wagon R stolen. Now he will say, I saw Modi was driving my car.” Matching Singh in wit was Debarati Majumdar, who said: “President of India must fire entire Modi cabinet, order probe and conduct interim elections.” Samir Arora’s tweet was even more direct: “I think someone wants him to use Uber or Ola,” read his tweet.
Another tweet went like this: “Why are they worried about Kejriwal’s car getting stolen? Wherever the thieves will take, it will automatically take a U-turn & come back.” Also posted was a poll seeking to know who stole the car.
Published 12 October 2017, 13:07 IST