“Netaji (Yadav) has said Modi does not have what it takes to make another Gujarat out of Uttar Pradesh. Do you know what making another Gujarat requires? … It requires a chhappan inch ki chhati (56-inch chest),” declared BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, just stopping short of thumping his chest King Kong style. Modi’s fixation with vital statistics isn’t new. After winning the 2007 Gujarat assembly elections, too, he had boasted about his ‘sizeable’ chest. Now, if we were to search for Modi’s metaphoric supermen, it would be a very exclusive macho league of gentlemen.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Height: 6 feet 2 inches. Weight: 118 kg. Waist: 34 inches. And the chest, a whopping 58 inches. Five years of hard and heavy chest-pumping regime — bench press, incline bench press and dumbbell exercises — was what it took for the ‘Terminator’ to increase his chest size from 39 inches to the magnificent 58 inches befitting Mr Olympia.
The Great Khali
Hulk Hogan
The former American professional wrestler, a 6-feet-7-inch tall, 12-time world champion boasts of a 58-inch chest and 24-inch biceps.
Prem Chand Dogra
Manohar Aich
Sylvester Stallone
So, what about NaMo himself? How does he compare with the Stallones and the Hulk Hogans? Well, if Sunil Kandalloor, the man who has made the Gujarat chief minister’s life-size wax statue at a museum in Lonavala, is to be believed, Modi’s chest measures 44 inches — one whole foot short of his aspirational chhappan inch ki chhati.