Less than a week ahead of the elections, the two largest political parties in India – ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and main Opposition Congress – released their respective poll campaign songs.
While the BJP's song borrows from their last year’s poll slogan “Ab Ki Baar Modi Sarkar”, the Congress song harps on the recent NYAY scheme announced in their manifesto.
The BJP theme song “Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar”, which means Modi government once again, gives special thrust on a “decisive and majority government” pitched against “chaos and mahamilavat (adulterated alliance, a term referring to the Opposition Mahagathbandhan )”.
The song is a report card of the last five years of Modi’s performance, and focuses primarily on national security, uprightness, and the will to take long strides.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who launched the theme song, said that the first half of the theme song talks about a ‘kaam karne waali sarkaar’ (a government that works), the second half talks about ‘imaandar sarkaar’ (an honest government), and the third half of the song dwells on a ‘faisle lene waali sarkaar’ (a government that takes decisive action).
Jaitley added: “Our campaign for television and radio will emphasise on national security, government's achievements, women empowerment through Ujwalla scheme, campaign against corruption, PM Kisan Yojana, the welfare of the poor, middle class and newly emerging middle class.”
As expected, the video of the song, apart from showing people from across India hailing from varied backgrounds, also has screenshots of media reports on Surgical Strike 2.0 and Indian Air Force attack on Balakot, a narrative that the BJP has been harping on through their poll campaign.
The Congress song “Ab Hoga Nyay”, which literally translated means “justice shall now be done” is a spin on the flagship Congress poll promise of the Basic Minimum Income Scheme Nyay. However, going by the lyrics it clearly hints at the fact that for so long, under the BJP rule, the country has been subjected to “anyay” or injustice.
The song, 'Main Hi Toh Hindustan Hu', which has been written by Javed Akhtar and filmed by Nikkhil Advani centres around who is India and what India wants narrative while showing aggrieved farmers and people hit by demonetisation, in the background.
The Congress party's song targets BJP's landmark policies and highlights the Congress’s pro-poor and common man agenda. The song also talks about unemployment, rural distress, and impact of demonetisation, alongside farmers’ suicide to outline how the ruling party has neglected the poor.
Commenting on the theme song, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said: “People talk on the non-performance, non-deliverance of the BJP government for the last five years. Betrayal, false promises and justice has been denied to the poor.”
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