# Congress calls Kiren Rijiju stunt master, he hits back with swimming post 2026-08-24T21:12:39+00:00 | Politics | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets Union minister Kiren Rijiju posted a video of himself swimming in an Arunachal river, prompting the Congress party to call him a stunt master and warn against risking his life for social media. Congress's Kerala unit mocked his dive as a frog-style performance and urged him to teach it to Amit Shah and the Cabinet. Rijiju fired back, saying swimming in Arunachal's gushing rivers requires a different technique, head up and body upright, and that it is child's play for him since childhood. “Mein yahan ka khiladi hun,” he wrote. The exchange is the latest in a series of good-humoured jibes between Rijiju and Rahul Gandhi over fitness and martial arts, including a jiu-jitsu challenge from Gandhi earlier this year. ## Indian Opinion Analysis Hindustan Times and Times Now both report the Congress-Rijiju exchange as a light-hearted political spar over fitness, with neither outlet adopting a pro-government or critical frame. Hindustan Times provides fuller context by quoting Rijiju's river-swimming techniques and the history of jiu-jitsu challenges, while Times Now adds the February Lok Sabha exchange where Gandhi used martial arts as a political metaphor. The uniform straight-reporting stance means no agenda to weigh. What matters: this is the latest in a recurring thread where fitness becomes a proxy for rivalry between the ruling party and the opposition. The next instalment will likely come when Gandhi renews his jiu-jitsu challenge. ## Coverage Coverage: 2 sources, 2 neutral - hindustantimes.com (neutral report) straight report of both sides' posts, no slant detected - timesnownews.com (neutral report) straight report of both sides' posts with added Parliament context, no slant This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above. Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources. Last updated 2026-08-25T00:55:38+00:00. Tags: Arunachal Pradesh, BJP, Congress, Kiren Rijiju, Rahul Gandhi Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/congress-calls-kiren-rijiju-stunt-master-he-hits-back-on-swimming-technique/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/congress-calls-kiren-rijiju-stunt-master-he-hits-back-on-swimming-technique/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/