Raiser of ‘Trump Chicken’ near White House to continue with protests

JALANDHAR: Taran Singh Brar, the 31-year-old documentary filmmaker, who has hit headlines for the inflatable ‘Trump Chicken’ near the White House, plans to continue with his protest for a few more months besides taking out marches with elaborately designed dozens of chickens ‘under protection of Russian arms’ to mock at the American President’s reported keenness for military parade.
A graduate in molecular biology, Brar is a second generation immigrant and his grandparents live in Chandigarh whom he visited last in December 2014. He was born in Canada and his parents later migrated to the US.
“I plan to continue putting up the inflatable chicken at this place and have also launched fund raising at gofundme.com for the purpose. I am also working to take out marches at different places with more elaborately designed chicken dons ‘under Russian arms protection’ as Trump can’t stand up to Russian President Valdimir Putin,” he said while speaking to TOI over phone.
About his political activism, Brar said he had been keenly watching politics and leadership issues since he was young. “I was into activism during my undergraduate days at University of California, Berkeley but I became more active after Trump became the President,” he said.
When asked about the main reasons for protest, Brar alleged that Trump promoted white supremacy. “He is not speaking truth on any issue and you can’t build anything on lies,” he said.
Talking about the chicken idea he said, “I was part of the tax march at Chicago in which ‘Chicken Don’ was used to demand Trump to release his tax returns. It was then that the idea struck to raise the inflatable ‘Chicken Don’ near the White House. I worked for permissions for a few weeks and got this inflatable chicken from China. It cost me $1500, including its shipment,” he revealed.
Brar said, “Trump is timid like a chicken. He is too afraid to release his tax returns. He can’t stand up to Putin and he is playing chicken with North Korea.”
‘Freedom of speech’
Taran Brar said it took him a few weeks to get permission from the office of National Parks Service for putting up the ‘Trump Chicken’. “They coordinate with the police and the secret service. I consistently followed my application for permission and repeatedly showed up at the office. What is remarkable is that though there was a height limit of 25 feet where I wanted to raise the chicken, but the authorities gave a waiver of another 5 feet as the project was seen as freedom of speech,” he said. Now the inflatable ‘Trump Chicken’ stands tall at 30 feet.
‘Trump, Modi alike’
Brar also compared Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “They are alike. They stirred hatred for riding to power,” he said while adding that he was aware of the “troubling incidents and developments” in India.