Mud slinging in the ad space

New Delhi: Political battles are being fought not just in the constituencies but the mud slinging is in full swing in the ad spaces as well. After Congress with much fan-fare acquired the rights to use A.R. Rahman’s Oscar-winning song Jai Ho as its battle call, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has countered with a 56-second film called Bhay Ho.

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The song, which features three street kids from Hyderabad singing in Mumbai local trains, takes a dig at the claims of the Congress party. “When the farmers are committing suicide, the Congress had promised one crore jobs, instead there are 1.5 crore job losses, there is a fear among the youth, economic slowdown, urban chaos, security issues. On what account do they say Jai Ho?” questions BJP spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh. The song, which is in black and white, shows a man planting a bomb on the train in an apparent reference to the 2006 Mumbai train blasts. The song ends by asking the common man to wake up and throw the UPA off.

The Congress, which has three 60-second films that trace the party’s path to progress, has rebuffed the BJP campaign. Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan calls it cheap gimmickry and says, “It’s unfortunate in the extreme that the BJP has become so ideologically bankrupt so as to not find any productive issues relating to ordinary that they have to resort to tom foolery”.

The BJP has also launched a radio-campaign called “Kaka Hathrasi” which, the party says, has got the best response. With two more weeks left for polling to begin, the parties are promising a few more surprise campaigns.