`Swadeshi' Vajpayee role model of modern hunks

KOLKATA: They are young guns who swear by jeans and body hugging T-shirts, yet they idolise Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee because they believe he epitomises the Swadeshi spirit. The beautiful women who judged them on their looks and intelligence, though, felt the best of the lot may have stayed away since Indian men don''t consider it macho enough to take part in catwalks.For most of Saturday, Vivan, Baljit, Savio and the rest seemed comfortable walking around the banquet hall in nothing but the bare essentials. There seemed to be nothing Hindustani about them save their dil. But asked by the jury who their favourite politician was, an astounding 27 out of the 28 aspirants for the Grasim Mr India 2001 title agreed on one name: Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The reason: An able leader, he stood for everything that is Indian and wanted to make the country self-sufficient. Jury member and celebrated talk show host Rajat Sharma admitted he was surprised. "I thought these boys belonged to a different generation. Only one boy went for Chandrababu Naidu. I thought Vajpayee would come across as `backdated'' and `too conventional'' to them," Sharma told The Times of India News Service after finishing a gruelling round of question and answer session with the title aspirants. Others like Bollywood star Neena Gupta felt the boys were "fairly good" and "spontaneous in answering questions" but added that the general standard was "not so good" when compared to Indian women who ruled the world. "Frankly I think the standard could have been higher. Believe me, there are better men in the country, but many of them do not want to take part in such competitions, since they feel it is not manly and macho enough," she said. Gupta said some contestants were good while others spoke well. "One could feel they were genuine and spontaneous in their reply. But overall I expected better quality," the Saans lady said. Former Miss World Yukta Mookhey found the whole bunch "rather cute" but clarified that she would not choose any of them as her future husband. "They are too young and immature. I would need more of a man, a more mature, thinking person," she said with a coy smile. Rajmata Gayatri Devi, Bollywwod star Anupam Kher and current Miss India Celina Jaitly preferred not to comment much on the either the standard of the men or the questions they asked. However, not everything spoken about the 28 budding stars was negative. "They were actually quite good. I already feel sorry for the 25 who are going to lose. I wish everyone could have won something. They have all worked so hard and put in so much effort just for these few hours," Sharma said.