Mohali IAS officer''s ''Election Rap'' captures popular imagination
Akash Ghai
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, March 26
A young gun in the Mohali administration has found a new, musical way to inspire new voters to vote these elections.
Sakshi Sawhney, Mohali’s additional deputy commissioner from the 2014 batch of civil services (Punjab cadre), came up with the ‘Election Rap’ in half an hour, on her way back from an inspection duty for the upcoming elections. The idea to write a rap song to encourage voters came from the Bollywood movie ‘Gully Boy’.
She said she had three primary motives for the song. “To motivate the youth to register, to ask people to vote ethically, and also to say that EVMs were safe,” she says.
Once the song was penned, Sawhney had to find somebody to sing it. She found out that a block development and panchayat officer, Hiten Kapila, was a singer, and roped him in.
The Mohali administration is now working on making a video for the song.
“This is a novel idea to reach out to young voters,” said Ruhi Sood, a college student. “Rap is very popular among youngsters and since almost everyone is hooked on to social media, it would have a mass reach.”
The song goes something like this:
Aa raha yeh chunav hai,
Hamara bhi to koi adhikaar hai
Vote nahin karega to kya wajood bhadas ki?
Paisa daaru vote ke liye kya wajood hai aas ki?
(It’s election time,
We have some rights too
What’s the point of your anger if you don’t vote
What is the point of having hopes if you’d rather trade it for money and drinks)
Vote teri keemti na hoga pher badal
Santushti ko teri VVPAT bhi to aayi hai
Dekh sakega tu teri vote kisko paayi hai…
(Your vote is valuable, there will not be any change to it
For your satisfaction, there are VVPATs now
You will be able to see whom your vote goes to)
Uff yeh kya majboori hai
Apne future se itni kya doori hai
Baad mein tu kyun pachtayega
Agar time pe vote nahin banayega
Agar tujhme hai dum
Utha kuch kadam
Form 6 ko tu bhar de
Bharat kee taqdeer badal de
(What is this compulsion
Why this distance between you and your future
Why would you want to regret later
If you won’t vote now
If you have the courage
Take a step
Fill up Form 6
and change India’s destiny)
