Now Beggars to Be Enlisted to Sing Paeans to Government

NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi-led BJP Hindu nationalist government plans on dragooning thousands of begging minstrels to sing paeans to its numerous social and economic schemes on crowded passenger trains across the country.

The Economic Times reported on Tuesday that the administration will recruit some 3,000 such men and women, who operate on trains, and tutor them to sing songs praising Modi’s initiatives like Swachh Bharat, Beti-Bachao-Beti-Padhao amongst numerous others.

Conceived by Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley, the authorities are working out a ‘remuneration package’ for the beggars.

Officials said a pilot project involving these minstrel beggars would be launched on Mumbai’s rail network later this month, before being extended to the rest of the country.

All India Radio’s Song and Drama Division is to shortly begin training this army of singing beggars, before they are deployed.

Child beggars, however, will not be part of this scheme, officials confirmed.

Numerous government and private advertising agencies have been hired to write promotional songs and jingles for the beggars to sing.

These will be then be fused with popular Bollywood tunes in order to make them appealing.

“The government’s first priority is to ensure that every citizen in the country knows about its schemes, achievements and efforts being made to change their lives” a senior Information ministry official told the Economic Times earlier this week.

The singing musicians on the trains will reach out to several commuters in a day and they are the best persons to take the governments’ message to the people, he added as justification of the scheme.

Begging minstrels are a popular diversion on passenger trains across India, normally packed beyond capacity and provide distraction from the inhuman discomfort, especially in searing hot temperatures.

Many are adept showmen and put up entertaining performances that go down well with their bored and distressed audiences.

Over decades a handful have even ended up in Bollywood, spotted by talent scouts riding the suburban trains.

And from the governments’ point of view, the commuters are a ‘tied audience’, with little choice but to listen to the minstrels and their message.

The proposed scheme has been variously received.

Whilst government supporters are enthusiastic about it, many others felt it was exploitative, as it cynically perpetuated beggary through its grand propagandist schemes.

“This is nothing but another cynical gimmick by the Modi government to showcase schemes that exist only on paper” said a social activist, declining to be named.

It’s typical of an administration that has failed to deliver on any of its grand promises since assuming office 14 month ago and is constantly thinking of newer stunts, he added.

The beggars’ scheme comprises part of the Modi governments overarching publicity blitz that recently involved street theatre groups and magicians to showcase the achievements of their first year in office.

The government’s publication division too is in the process of launching books lauding its perceived successes.