Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday morning tweeted his response to Indian Cricket skipper Virat Kohli’s fitness challenge, Congress president Rahul Gandhi gave it a political twist posing another challenge to the PM.
“Dear PM, glad to see you accept the @imVkohli fitness challenge. Here’s one from me: Reduce fuel prices or the Congress will do a nationwide agitation and force you to do so. I look forward to your response,” Gandhi tweeted with the hashtag #FuelChallenge.
Rahul’s well-timed banter came soon after Modi told Virat that he will soon upload his fitness video.
“Challenge accepted, Virat! I will be sharing my own #FitnessChallenge video soon,” the PM tweeted in reply to Virat’s challenge.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav too took a cue from Rahul and took to Twitter to hand Modi a different challenge altogether.
“While we have nothing against accepting fitness challenge from @imVkohli, I urge you to accept the challenge to provide jobs to young, relief to farmers, promise of no violence against dalits & minorities. Would you accept my challenge @narendramodi SirIJ” Yadav’s tweet read.
After accepting the fitness challenge thrown at him by the Union Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore, Virat Kohli challenged another three people, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, teammate and former captain MS Dhoni and wife Anushka Sharma, to follow his lead.
The fitness challenge — #HumFitTohIndiaFit — was started by the Information & Broadcasting Minister on Tuesday. Rathore, who is one of India’s first individual Olympic medalists, tweeted a video doing push-ups and urged people to shoot a video of their “fitness mantra” and share it. He tagged Virat Kohli, badminton champion Saina Nehwal and actor Hrithik Roshan for the challenge #HumFitTohIndiaHit.
Modi is known for his love for yoga and his Government has, in the past four years, pulled out all the stops to celebrate International Yoga Day on June 21. The NaMo app has many 3D videos of the Prime Minister doing yoga asanas. The Fit India movement was initiated by Modi in March. He even talked about the movement in his Mann Ki Baat radio talk in April and released a 3D-animated video of himself depicting the ‘Trikonasana’ posture.
A fitness freak by his own admission, Virat accepted the challenge and proceeded to do his favourite exercise --the spider planks as he joined the fitness movement. He posted a video doing 20 spiders and challenged three people to take over the baton and continue the movement in their own way and tweeted, “I have accepted the #FitnessChallenge by @ra_THORe sir. Now I would like to challenge my wife @AnushkaSharma, our PM @narendramodi ji and @msdhoni Bhai for the same. #HumFitTohIndiaFit #ComeOutAndPlay”.
Virat is not the first to answer the challenge. Rathore’s initiative has garnered positive response from a plethora of Indian personalities, including Saina Nehwal, actor Manoj Tiwari, Salman Khan, Tiger Shroff, wrestler Babita Phogat, para-badminton player Manasi Joshi and many more, all of whom have shared their fitness videos on twitter.
The campaign earned praise from tennis champion Sania Mirza, who tweeted, “When was the last time we saw a Minister do thisIJIJIJ Coolest leading by example.. congratulations on this #FitnessChallenge Sir.. here’s to a brighter and healthier India ..”
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju also shared a video of himself doing exercise in his office. He challenged actor Salman Khan, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu and TV actress Saumya Tandon.
Hrithik replied to Rathore with a video of riding a bicycle and said that this was how he travelled to work every day. “This initiative makes me so proud! Bravo. #HumFitTohIndiaFit #FitnessChallenge this is how I commute to my office every day. Sitting static in a car is such a waste. Walk, cycle, jog, feel the earth, feel India get FIT!” tweeted Hrithik.