The video, pitching Boris Johnson as UK’s next prime minister and asking voters to support him, has gone viral on social media, prompting an avalanche of hilarious reactions and memes.
The elaborate video features Johnson himself, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian High Commissioner Ruchi Ghanshyam, among others.
However, it is yet to be confirmed if it is an actual election campaign video or just a comedy spoof.
The background score of the one-and-a-half minute video clip features a female singer chorusing: “Jaago jaago! Chunav firse aya hai Boris ko hume jitana hai” (Wake up! Wake up! It’s election time, and we have to ensure Boris wins).
The video, made with precision, seems to be an election pitch for British-Indian voters in the UK.
While a Twitter user jokingly called the video “revenge for 200 years of colonisation”, a journalist with the Indian daily took it rather seriously and said the Minister of External Affairs should protest over it.
The video surfaced on the Internet at the same time as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Shri Swaminarayan Temple in London, and addressed the Indian diaspora, expressing his concerns over “anti-Hindu” and “anti-India” sentiments in the UK. According to the United Kingdom Census 2011, more than 1,451,862 people of Indian ethnicity reside in the UK (not including those who categorised themselves as having mixed ethnicity).