Slumdog song 'Jai Ho!' has many claimants

Mumbai, Mar 6 (ANI): As the Congress party is upbeat about its prospects in the upcoming general elections after it bought the rights of 'Jai Ho!', the Oscar-winning song from 'Slumdog Millionaire', critics and commentators said gimmicks like this don't really matter.

"People are not going to vote for the Congress just on the basis of this song. They will think in terms of what the Congress has done in the last five years. So, they can use the song in their public rallies, but they have a wrong impression that the song itself will help them win elections," said Meena Karnik, a film critic.

Congress leaders said the song, whose title is Hindi for "Let There be Victory", will be played during rallies in rural towns, villages and cities.

Senior journalist Yuvraj Mohite said both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have deflected from real issues.

"The song was also played in one of the rallies of Narendra Modi. So, now Congress is accusing BJP of using the song in their promotion. So, both the parties are now trading charges on this. People would rather want them to take up issues related to them and not fight over a song," he said.

Tushar Gandhi, a great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, said the trend is a "tragedy of our democracy."

"Every party today resorts to film stars, film names and Bollywood songs. That is the tragedy of our democracy. Instead of debate on policy matters, we are getting wooed by catchy numbers and catchy slogans and beautiful starlets," said Tushar. (ANI)