Song after song is being written for political parties just before the elections. Do the people behind the songs endorse the party’s ideology or is it just another job for them?
Sonali Joshi Pitale (MID-DAY; April 2, 2014)

Switch on the radio and you are bombarded with songs singing paeans of various political parties just before the elections. A case in point is the new anthem Saugandh Mujhe Iss Mitti Ki for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which has been sung by Sukhwinder Singh, penned by Prasoon Joshi and the music composed by Aadesh Shrivastava. The question is, would it be safe to conclude that these people would be supporting the party that they created the song for.

Aadesh has no qualms in admitting that he’s in full support of the party that he made the music for, but Sukhvinder Singh and Prasoon Joshi made it clear that they looked at it as purely professional commitment.

Aadesh says, “Lyrics of the song are amazing and very meaningful. So when I was approached for it, I immediately said yes. In the last 10 years people have seen no change in the situation and as a common man I am looking for some change in power. The layman’s condition in these years has become worse. But I am not going to campaign for the party.” Aadesh admitted that he hasn’t demanded any money from the party for giving music to the song.

Prasoon Joshi, however, told hitlist that he’s not supporting any party and he’s purely looking at it as a professional commitment.

Supporting two parties
Sukhwinder Singh’s case is unique as he had sung Jai Ho last year for the Congress and this year he switched to the BJP anthem. Singh says for him too it is just a work commitment. He further says that the song is not any pro-party but more pro-country. “Prasoon’s song is wonderful and it doesn’t say anything against any political party.”

Asked if he will support the party he has sung the song for, Singh said, “I will campaign for them if they ask me to do so. But when the Congress had last year offered me Jai Ho, I had put down the condition that I will only sing if the lyrics won’t be maligning any other party. So they gave me the song which only spoke about the progress of the party and so I sang it. I have faith and respect for Prasoon so when this time he came up with this, I agreed. I charged my regular fees for the song and I have already received the payment,” says the singer.

Meanwhile an industry insider says, “Normally advertising agencies which design these campaigns and shoot commercials for the parties are paid as per their market rates. They never do it for free. The only exception for this is when they tie up with some NGO , they don’t charge money.” In praise Sunidhi Chauhan, Alka Yagnik and Shaan sang a song for the Congress Party and Kailash Kher has lent voice for a song praising the Aam Aadmi Party.

Kher supports the AAP party and he says that he’s done the song for free. The crooner has donated the song to the ‘ movement’ which Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal started few years ago. “ My band did the song when Arvindji had not formed the party. However, I still support him because I feel that he has brought a huge change amongst the youth.

Whenever I go out and meet youngsters I get to know that they have been motivated by the party’s spirit. This song is my gift to him,” he said.