An apocryphal tale talks about a Roman emperor playing the lyre even as Rome burnt to ashes. India is not up in flames - not yet. However, it is not impossible to spot small fires being lit in New India. The price of fuel is enough to singe consumers; several protesters have died in police firing in Tamil Nadu; minority communities are seething at the government's apathy towards the violence and discrimination directed against them; employment, much like the achchhe din promised by the prime minister, is proving to be elusive; dissenting voices are being threatened - in other words, these are not-so-quiet times for this country. The people in charge of running the nation may not be busy with the lyre. But that is only because they have a far more pressing matter on their mind - the 'Fitness Challenge'. So much so that the Opposition is alleging that national concerns which demand urgent intervention have, for the time being, been relegated to the background.
It all started with a Union minister - he is a former Olympian - urging the Indian cricket captain, among other celebrities, to post pictures and videos bearing evidence of his fitness level. The Indian captain accepted the challenge and, in turn, passed it on to the prime minister. Narendra Modi - is he not the leader with a broad chest? - seldom shies away from a contest. Whether it is taking India back to Ram rajya or engineering a discernible transformation of a secular republic into a sectarian polity, the prime minister has always taken up the gauntlet. He did it this time too. This was the signal that Mr Modi's colleagues were waiting for. Soon enough, social media was flooded with pictures of fit as well as chubby ministers flexing their muscles or doing laborious push-ups.
It never hurts to be healthy. After all, has not the prime minister taken India to the mat to ensure that the people stay fit by practising yoga? The Fitness Challenge can be looked at as another welfare initiative thought up by the nation's self-proclaimed sentinel. The people's representatives are falling over one another to get into shape. The boss, especially the man in charge of the Bharatiya Janata Party, must never be disobeyed. It remains to be seen whether the government would now think up ways of making the people fall in line. The BJP has shown that it knows a thing or two about cracking the whip. Linking basic rights and provisions of recalcitrant citizens with their acceptance of the Fitness Challenge campaign could be a perfect fit.
What shines through the digital images of ministers in the middle of strenuous drills is the BJP's perfection of the art of political spin. Be it demonetization, the surgical strike or, now, the Fitness Challenge, the party is past master when it comes to ensuring that political programmes haunted by the prospect of failure can be repackaged as grand successes. This is a tried-and-tested method for diverting public attention from key failures in governance. It is said that a French princess had once asked starving citizens to eat cake. Indians, it seems, would have to do with the treadmill.
