Congress pulls "Jai Ho" off air

Congress' ‘JAI HO’ is temporarily off the air. Negative feedback on the celebratory approach of the three short films, released earlier in March, has forced the party to reconsider using them. Based on the response to the initial airing, there was apprehension in the party that the ‘Jai Ho’ crusade would end up going the “India Shinning” way. Having made a hefty investment in procuring the licence to use the tune, Congress now plans to come back with a fresh set of spots on the ‘Jai Ho’ theme. These will be aired later during the course of the election season. A senior party functionary involved in the campaign said the fresh ‘Jai Ho’ campaigns “will be more folksy”, and the songs will be written and sung by Sukhvinder. The first set of three one-minute films based on the Oscar winning song from the film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ were on air from March 14 for just four days. The campaign films were aired on seven Hindi language news and several entertainment channels. Prepared by Percept, the spots focused on the Congress heritage, its championing of the aam aadmi (common man) and achievements like NREGA and Right to Information. A senior party leader confirmed that the three ‘Jai Ho’ films prepared by Percept in early March will not be aired at all during the campaign. The initial response to the idea of using ‘Jai Ho’ as the theme song was that it sounded good, but it is a “delicate walk to the other side”. The argument is that there is an “underbelly to this song and film which is not very palatable to the Indian sensibility”. It is now feared that the campaign could expose Congress to attacks from the Opposition, which would argue that the party was responsible for the existence of slums. A message that would run counter to and cancel out Congress’ claim as the force of progress.