AAP MP Raghav Chadha on Friday expressed love for all the memes being made around his raising of popular — or generic, according to some — issues in the Rajya Sabha. “Loving the memes, you guys are really creative.. keep them coming,” he wrote on X, with a meme of his own.
He posted his still image showing him speaking in the Upper House of Parliament. To it, he added a mock subtitle: “Sir, yeh memes band nahi hone chahiye…” — as if telling the chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, in Hindi, that “these memes must not stop”.
The memes hit the replies section of this post too, explaining what he was actually talking about. One showed him raising the issue of coconut water : “Sir jab paise nariyal pani ke hain to hum pure nariyal ke paise kyun dein.” (‘When we buy just the water, why should we pay for the whole coconut?’)
{{/usCountry}}The memes hit the replies section of this post too, explaining what he was actually talking about. One showed him raising the issue of coconut water : “Sir jab paise nariyal pani ke hain to hum pure nariyal ke paise kyun dein.” (‘When we buy just the water, why should we pay for the whole coconut?’)
{{/usCountry}}To be sure, he did not actually raise that issue.
Another showed him demanding “four Sundays every week”. Yet another had him saying: “Speaker sir, ab Golmal, Heri Pheri, Dhamaal jesi movies nahi ban rahi,” demanding more slapstick comedies from the Indian film industry.
Some users flagged his near-absence from AAP’s affairs, including when the party celebrated a court’s discharging of its chief Arvind Kejriwal and other leaders in the Delhi liquor policy case. “If you really like it we will flood you with memes, but don't think we will forgive you for… ditching your guru,” one X user commented.
There were multiple replies also praising his ability to take a joke and not threaten the meme-makers with legal cases.
Indeed the 37-year-old Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab, one of the founding members of AAP, has been on a roll this Budget Session, in that he's consistently been raising general, consumer-centric issues, from mobile recharge frustrations to what's really inside that fruit juice carton.
This week, he spoke in the House on how “traffic has turned our metro cities into giant parking lots with people trapped inside them”.
On March 11, Chadha took on telecom companies over prepaid recharge policies. He questioned why, when a recharge expires, incoming calls and SMS services are also blocked. "If a recharge expires, stopping outgoing calls may be understandable. But why are incoming calls stopped as well? Once validity ends, people cannot be reached, and even essential messages like bank OTPs may not come through," he argued, pointing out that prepaid users make up nearly 90% of India's 125 crore mobile subscribers.
He followed this up on March 23 with an attack on the practice of expiring daily data limits. "You are billed for 2GB. You use 1.5GB. The remaining 0.5GB disappears as the day ends. No refund. No rollover. Just gone. This is not an accident. This is policy," he said, demanding that all telecom operators implement a rollover mechanism so unused data carries forward to the next day. He also called for the option to share unused data with family and friends.
Just a day later, on March 24, Chadha shifted his lens to packaged food. He raised the issue that many products display attractive images of fresh fruits on the front, while disclaimers such as "pictures for marketing purposes only" are printed in fine print on the back of the packet.
"You think you're drinking fruit juice? Think again," he remarked, calling these products "sugar syrups" masquerading as healthy drinks. "What steps the government is taking to ensure a ban on misleading imagery so that companies do not mislead visually while complying technically?" he asked.
This was, in fact, a continuation of a food safety thread he had started in January, when he flagged food adulteration as a "raging health crisis”, and asked: "Are the products manufactured in India but banned internationally — those of two of our largest garam masala companies, banned in the US, UK, and Europe for containing cancer-causing pesticides — still being sold here?"
Earlier, he raised the issue of instant delivery by quick-commerce apps was hurting gig workers. The BJP-led NDA government thereafter asked apps not to advertise “10 minute” promises.
His picking of everyday issues in punchy rhetoric led to memes that praised him for being a “middle-class crusader” to others alleging he picks up generic issues to grab eyeballs alone. His apparent distance from his party AAP has also been noticed by social media users too.
AAP leader Sanjay Singh, also a member of the Rajya Sabha, was recently asked about Chadha's relative absence from AAP affairs. He replied that “this only Raghav can answer” and said they maintain a cordial relationship. Chadha has not directly addressed this point.