Senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said he was a proud andolan jeevi (someone who thrives on protests) after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent remarks in the Rajya Sabha. He accepted the term as a badge of honour and tweeted, "I am a proud andolan jeevi. The quintessential andolan jeevi was Mahatma Gandhi."
Not only Chidambaram, advocate Meena Kandasamy and Congress' social media coordinator Gaurav Pandhi also expressed pride in being andolan jeevis and changed their profile names to andolanjeevi dr. meena kandasamy and Gaurav Pandhi-Andolanjeevi. Former diplomat KC Singh took a jibe at the Prime Minister via a tweet.
Samajwadi Party chief and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav attacked PM Modi on his 'andolan jeevi' remark and went onto call the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party as 'chanda jeevis', meaning those who survive on donations. Yadav said in Parliament, "That 'andolans' or protests have given India several rights and several leaders. In fact, India gained independence due to protests. If people who protest are 'andolan jeevis', then BJP leaders are 'chanda jeevis', who brandish their flag to collect donations ever so often."
The new term coined by the Prime Minister was welcomed by some people such as BJP MP from Bengaluru Central PC Mohan, entrepreneur Nikhil Nanda and Former Governor of Tripura and Meghalaya Tathagata Roy.
PM Modi said while replying to The Motion of Thanks on President's address in the Rajya Sabha, "We are well aware of some terms like 'shram jeevi' and 'buddhi jeevi'. But I am seeing that for some time a new entity has come up in this country- andolan jeevi. This community can be spotted wherever there is a protest, be it agitation by lawyers, students, or labourers, sometimes at the forefront and sometimes from behind. They cannot live without protests. We have to identify such people and protect the nation from them. They are parasites."
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