India Insight

The Congress party has bought the rights to “Jai Ho”, the Oscar-winning song from “Slumdog Millionaire”, to use for its election campaign.

Although popular Bollywood song tunes have always been used after being set to new lyrics for canvassing votes, acquiring the rights to a song for election campaigning is a possible first.

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. But why did the party go so far as to get the song rights?

Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi cited the Oscar wins as a result of good governance and inclusive democracy under UPA rule.

Popular culture in India has politics, movies, cricket and religion as predominant ingredients and elections are a mix of all these.

Doctors call it the “ignored problem” and semi-literate parents in India’s rural hinterland view it as a “curse of God”.

Unfortunately, being born with the cleft lip, a physical deformity that can be easily corrected, can alter the course of a person’s life.

Megan Mylan’s documentary film “Smile Pinki”, the story of an eight-old girl with a cleft lip, may have won an Oscar, but for thousands of children living with the deformity, the battle is far from over.