New Delhi, Oct 10 : There will be a pop element in senior BJP leader L K Advani's ‘rath yatra' as the party on Sunday launched a four-and-a-half minute long song sung by Bollywood singer Raja Hasan and directed by filmmaker Mani Shankar.The song, ‘Ab Bas' (enough), opens with Advani reciting lines about “Thousands of crores of nation's money in foreign banks” and inflation.
The yatra anthem ends with him again reciting lines on ‘sankalp' to eradicate corruption. Party leaders are hoping that youngsters would like the song and put it on social networking sites like Facebook and download it on MP3 players.
At the launch function at his Prithviraj Road residence, Advani said, “The vigour with which the US, Germany, France and other countries whose (black) money are lodged in tax havens have pursued the issue, was lacking in India's context...During this period, many have even withdrawn this money.”
“The Indian government has got some names of people who have got money in foreign shores. I demand that all those names should be made public without delay,” he said The BJP leader said that he was initially a bit hesitant to recite lines in the song but the director made him do so.
Advani said that he had seen Mani Shankar's film ‘Knock Out', which was centred around the black money issue, and when the decision for the yatra was taken his daughter Pratibha contacted the filmmaker who agreed and prepared the anthem in two days' time.
Speaking on the occasion, Mani Shankar said the song was a voluntary effort and none of the artists had charged for it. Party leaders said that the song may be later made into a music video with shots taken from Advani's yatra. PTI
