Advertising blitz gone wrong

The Congress was caught in an embarrassing position when its latest advertisement, in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, prominently projecting party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi mouthing the slogan, "Mein nahin, hum", was labelled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as "copycat". The BJP targeted the Congress, saying the party had "copied" an earlier Narendra Modi advertisement with the same tagline, prepared for a BJP convention in 2011. The Congress attempted to defend itself using a similar analogy. "The 'aam aadmi' tagline was initially ours," said spokesperson Shobha Oza. "Congress ka haath aam aadmi ke saath was our slogan. Aam Aadmi ke sipahi was also a Youth Congress slogan," added Oza, implying that the Aam Aadmi Party had appropriated the slogan but the Congress had not objected to the move.