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Hard-to-miss musical ring to Punjab poll campaign
Singers, big and small, lend voice to jingles eulogising their clients
Charanjit Singh Teja/TNS
DOING BRISK BUSINESS: Signboards of singers outside their offices in Ludhiana. Photo: Inderjit Verma |
Ludhiana, December 31
Love it, hate it but you can’t ignore it. Such is the musical blitzkrieg launched by Punjab politicians, cutting across party lines. If you travel by one of the many private buses plying in the state, don’t be surprised to hear singers sing paeans to the ‘developmental work’ done by the Akali-BJP government. Such jingles are being played in buses owned by most politicians. Most of these numbers are barely catchy or hummable, but with mind-numbing alacrity they could well drill into passengers their purported political message. It was a jarring journey for Jalandhar resident Davinder Pal Singh, who boarded a bus from Jalandhar to go to Ludhiana, a one-and-a-half hour journey. “Instead of the usual Bollywood or Punjabi numbers, we were made to hear jingles eulogising the Badal government’s achievements of the past five years. Most of us were left analysing the contents of the songs,” he said. For a city-based woman, the journey from Patiala to Ludhiana was uncomfortable given the distasteful songs playing in the bus. “I could have never imagined that songs could have such a strident note to them. During my journey, I had to make efforts to tune out distasteful songs that were replete with politics of derision. Surely, ‘Jatt kaddu vechan la te... sarkar ne’ is not a delightful composition,” she said, requesting anonymity. Commuters’ woes apart, small-time singers are busy raking in the moolah recording political songs. Ludhiana, with its rash of studios, is a favourite destination for recording political jingles. According to singer Pammi Bai, most singers who record such songs do it for the money. “It’s the most opportune time for them to earn a few extra bucks.” Singer Jagdish Singh Goga whose song ‘Badal deeyan kartutaan’ is played in buses, while defending the trend
of political jingles, said, “A singer’s job is to entertain, and if the entertainment is message-oriented, even better.” If insiders from the music industry are to be believed, even top-notch singers sing political jingles. As Sarbjeet Singh Virdhi, an office-bear of a Ludhiana-based cultural organisation that liaisons with singers and political parties, said, “Noted singers don’t mind lending their voice to a political song, but they invariably fall shy of lending their name to it. As for singers and lyricists, some cite party affiliations as the ‘inspiration’ for political jingles, while others make it a matter of personal equation.” Mohammad Siddiq, whose ‘Jatt kaddu vechan la te **** sarkar ne’ is this poll season’s favourite, said his songs only bear out his affiliation with the Congress. Lyricist Babu Singh Mann, whose lyrics on Badal-Tohra-Talwandi were a hit during the 1985 Punjab Assembly polls, sums it all up. “If anyone from any party comes to us, we oblige them. This has more to do with personal equations rather than party affiliations,” he said.
Parodies to boost BJP campaign in U’khand
Neena Sharma
Tribune News Service
Dehradun, December 31
The song “Ghotala, Ghotala. Oo la la” promises to liven up the campaigning in the state with the Bharatiya Janata Party unleashing the first of its campaign songs for the Assembly election due on January 30. The lyrics and the music owe a lot to the film “The Dirty Picture” and the popular song, “Oo la la...” . “The song will be BJP’s anthem in the election,” said Deepti Rawat, the BJP spokesperson. A folk song from yet another popular film, Peepli Live, has also been appropriated by the BJP. In the film the song was sung by a group from Madhya Pradesh. But in Uttarakhand the lyric, “ Synyaan to khubat kamaat hain/ Mehngain dayain khaye jaat hai”( My man earns quite a lot but it is Inflation, the witch, who gobbles up everything) will be sung by local singers and using local, folk forms. Both the songs are racy, catchy and in sync with the mood of the people fed up with price rise. “These songs are being religiously followed and makes everyone sit up. The song from 'Peepli Live' complains about the frequent hikes in petrol and diesel prices,” said Agriculture Minister Trivender Singh Rawat. It is somewhat ironical because the BJP government headed by Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank was accused of so much corruption that the party was forced to replace him with B.C. Khanduri in September last year, barely four months before the election is held. The party hopes to shift the focus from corruption in the state to corruption in the national capital and by the Congress, which is also certain to target BJP on the same issue. Campaign songs are not a novelty. During the Bihar election, the song, “ Sau me saala nabbe beimaan/ kare chaara ghotala/Chale seene ko taan” ( Ninety per cent of the candidates are dishonest/ but though tainted, they strut around with a swagger) was used extensively. Shankar Mahadevan sang campaign songs for Raj Thackeray while the Indian National Congress used the song, “ Jai Ho” from the film, Slumdog Millionaire, in the last general election. Campaign songs are also popular in Southern states as well. This is not the first time that political parties are borrowing songs from popular cinema. Popular singer Narinder Singh Negi’s number “Nauchami Narain” targeted former Chief Minister N.D Tiwari. The popular song caught the imagination of the people in the 2007 elections, which the Congress lost. Popular Garhwali folk singers like Pritam Barthwan and Gagender Rana are also expected to be much in demand during the elections. “We will be extensively using parodies of popular songs in our campaigns. Cinema and music always connect with people and that is perhaps the reason most political parties use film music,” said B.S Chufal, BJP Uttarakhand Chief.
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