Column

Jai ho to the Congress party for turning AR Rahman’s bouncy, catchy Oscar winning tune into a political anthem. It looks like nothing is safe any more from greedy netas, always on the lookout to appropriate popular icons at election time. Rahman’s song was sure to be gobbled up by politics the day it got nominated for an Academy award.

Although the Congress bought the rights, the story actually begins in the BJP. The saffron party was the first to put in a bid for the tune, having come up with the bright idea of using it to parody the Congress and its many claimed achievements. Jai ho to each, from Chandrayaan to the Australian Open junior tennis championship for which party spokesman Abhishekh Singhvi declared the credit should go to the Congress government of Manmohan Singh.

The tale now takes a cloak and dagger turn. The Congress and the BJP play spy versus spy regularly. It’s amazing how both know what the other is going to do next. When word leaked to the Congress on the grapevine that the BJP intended to buy the song, it sprung into action.

A bright spark on the campaign committee suggested that it would be wonderful if the Congress managed to steal the tune away from under the BJP’s nose. One of Mumbai’s top admen, known to be friendly with Rahman and the owners of T-Series, which owns the rights, was put on the job. He pulled off a coup by quickly signing the contract and even before the ink was dry, he got his lawyers to shoot off notices to the BJP, warning the party not to use the tune as the copyright now belonged to the Congress.

Pipped to the post quite unexpectedly, the BJP’s campaign strategists summoned a war council to discuss the legal implications. Ultimately, it sagaciously decided to drop the ball dead. Why give the Congress more reason to gloat over the BJP’s bloody nose?

A more critical question is whether serious political parties should spend so much time and effort in absurd, schoolboyish games of one-upmanship. The history of elections all over the world shows that jingles and ditties do not win an election.

The saffron party has since scrapped its Jai ho parodies while the Congress commissioned well known poet and humourist Ashok Chakradhar to pen political lyrics for the tune. They will soon be blasted over television, radio and at rallies across the country. Will Rehman’s original score survive political overkill? We certainly hope so.

TAILPIECE
It turns out that film stars were not the only deal breakers in the Congress-SP talks for an electoral alliance in UP. The Ambani corporate rivalry too cast a long shadow over the discussions. The cat is out of the bag with the Congress announcing its decision to field Anu Tandon from Unnao, a constituency near Lucknow.

Tandon is the wife of a top Reliance Industries executive and was a bone of contention right from the beginning. According to those familiar with the seat sharing discussions between Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh and Amar Singh, the latter raised the red flag over Tandon’s name and made it very clear that the SP could not support or campaign for someone associated with a Mukesh Ambani company.

The Congress was adamant, it seems, just as it insisted on fielding SP rebel-turned-Congressman Raj Babbar from Fatehpur Sikri and refused to leave Rampur for SP’s sitting MP Jaya Pradha. It looks like the alliance was doomed from the start.