The Congress party is known for regular faux pas. In a recent such incident, the party was found using parts of a speech by BJP leader Smriti Irani in a video it posted on its Instagram account. The party deleted the video after facing a massive embarrassment.
As per video grabs posted by a number of social media users on X, the Congress party had posted a video promoting the upcoming Bharat Nyay Yatra of Rahul Gandhi, the sequel of Bharat Jodi Yatra. The video starts with audio and graphic of a man asking, “Dad… What is Goosebumps?” The dad then replies, “Goosebumps? Come with me”.
The ‘son’ then asks, “But where dad?” The video then shows the text ‘Bharat Nyay Yatra Loading’, and after that the date 14th January is shown, the date when the yatra will start. After that, visuals of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra is shown, while a woman’s voice recites a fiery patriotic poem in the background.
Congress official page on Instagram shared a reel of Rahul Gandhi with background voice of BJP leader/minister Smriti Irani 🤣🤣
— Gems of Politics (@GemsOf_Politics) December 29, 2023
Pappu Party for a reason!! pic.twitter.com/r4Tg1nlAIE
The voiceover says, ‘Hum jiyenge to is Bharat ke liye, marenge to is Bharat ke liye. Aur Marne ke baad bhi Gangajal me behti hamari asthiyon ko koi kaan lagakar sunega to ek hi awaz ayegi… ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. This roughly translates to, ‘we live for this Bharat, we will die for this Bharat. And after our death if someone puts ear to our bone in Ganga water, only one voice will be heard, Bharat Mata Ki Jai.
However, perhaps the Congress party wasn’t aware of the orator and the author of this lines, if they had, they would have never use the audio in the promo video. Because, the party used the voice of BJP leader and Union Minister Smriti Irani, and the poem was authored by former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Smriti Irani had recited the poem in Lok Sabha on 24 February 2016, while replying to a debate on JNU and Rohith Vemula’s death. In the video of her speech embedded below, the poem recited by her can be heard after 43 minutes into the video.
These lines were penned by BJP leader and former PM late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was also a well-known poet. The full text is:
Bharat koi bhumi ka tukda nehi hai, ye jita jagta rashrapurush hai. Yeh vandan ki dharti hai, abhinandan ki dharti hai. Yeh arpan ki bhoomi hai, darpan ki bhoomi hai. Ki nadi nadi humaare liye Ganga hai, iska kankar kankar humaare liye Shankar hai. Hum jiyenge to iss Bharat ke liye, marenge to iss Bharat ke liye. Aur marne ke baad bhi, Gangajal mein behti huee humaare asthiyon ko koi sunega, to ek hi awaz aayegi – Bharat Mata Ki Jai.
While Smriti Irani had recited the full poem, Congress used the last couple of lines in its video. However, when they realised the massive goof-up, they deleted the video.
A promo released by Congress for the Bharat Jodo Yatra had also become a subject of controversy, because the party had used the soundtracks of the movie KGF-Chapter 2 without authorisation. A court had blocked the Twitter handle of Congress after MRT Music sued Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders for illegal use of their copyrighted music.
