It’s always fun to do a comparison with individuals in the 21st century with characters in the Mahabharata. The ancient Indian epic, which has some of the best written characters in the history of literature across the world, shows how complex human beings can be.
For starters, while Mahabharata is supposed to be the battle of good against evil, if you introspect closely, every charcter – Lord Krishna included – has shades of gray. Duryodhana for example can never be doubuted for the love he had for his brothers of Karna. However, his jealously towards his cousins, the Pandavas, led to his downfall. Similarly, Bheema, who is the son of the wind and the brother of Lord Hanuman, was a bully when he was a young man.
Keeping these factors in mind, Twitter user @omkar_gs shared a thread on Indian politicians and which character they would play in the Mahabharata.
These are his comparisons
LK Advani for Bhishma
Shashi Tharoor as King Shantanu
Atal Bihari Vajpayee as Yudhistira.
Arvind Kejriwal as Shakuni
Satyavati, will be Sonia Gandhi as she is the outsider who took the kingdom
Uddhav Thackeray will play Dritharashtra, who is blinded for the love of his son.
And of course, Narendra Modi, according to Omkar, will play Lord Krishna.
Omkar added that despite looking through Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga, he couldn’t find anyone he could compare with Rahul Gandhi.
Notably, the central government has issued a 21-day lockdown during which they have retelecast the Ramayana and the Mahabharata on Doordarshan. You can also live stream epidodes.