Jagat Prakash Nadda, national president of India's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was addressing crowds in West Bengal state when he put a spin on the Instagram-famous “pawrii” trend.
In the original video, Pakistani blogger Dananeer Mobeen shows her car, friends and then pans to the party they are having accompanying each shot with a different sentence in Hindi – “Ye humari gaadi hai” (this is our car), “Ye hum hain” (this is us) and “Ye humari pawrii [party] ho rahi hai” (this is us partying).
Nadda, getting with the zeitgeist, decided to borrow the trending mantra for his election campaign speech and in Hindi said – “Ye Bengal ki janta hai, ye hum sab hai, aur Bengal main parivartan ki tayyari ho rahi hai” -- (These are Bengal’s people, this is us, and Bengal is gearing up for regime change).
Assembly elections in West Bengal state are likely to be held in April/May when BJP will be standing against the state's All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) which at present is in charge.
Netizens reacted to Nadda’s attempt to be trendy with shock because a Hindu nationalist BJP leader is borrowing a Pakistani influencer’s trend as part of his election campaign. Jokes and memes on Nadda’s video also have begun to flood Twitter.
Several public figures and actors have also recently recorded videos of themselves lip-syncing to Dananeer’s “#PawriiHoRahiHai” trend.
Indian music composer Yashraj Mukhate also created a catchy song out of the Pakistani influencer’s video.