Text by Rupang Bhatt, Ahmedabad, 18 June 2012

Here is a new TV commercial of Gujarat Congress that has been launched recently on Gujarati news TV channels.

The advertisement makes fun of Gujarat government’s favorite and largely used tag word ‘Vibrant’.

It is difficult to understand why such advertisements are launched on TV channels when the assembly election is over six-months away?

Perhaps Congress wants to build an atmosphere in advance, but with what? The Hindi-Gujarati-mix advertisement targets ‘dambh’ and ‘ahankar’ of a leader without naming him. Now can somebody’s so called ‘dambh’ and ‘ahankar’ become an election issue? It only shows that Congress is running out of ammunition to target the ruling government.

The advertisement shows bunch of ‘unemployed’ youths dancing, singing and questioning Vibrant Gujarat summit of the Gujarat government.

The advertisement raises question whether Vibrant Gujarat summits deliver jobs actually?

The advertisement also tries to make a point that the government wastes money for kite festival, Rann Utsav, Navratri festival. Now the fact is that two of the festivals Navratri and Rann Utsav are highly popular among the people of Gujarat. The people of Kutch would definitely hate someone who opposes Rann Utsav. Similarly, the people of Ahmedabad who enjoy professionally organized Navratri for free at GMDC ground thanks to the state government would definitely lose respect for Congress for question such event.

In run up to the election, more advertisements will come out, and some of them are likely to spark controversy.

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