Gandhi speech is now ringtone

Unless I&B ministry has its way, mobile phone users may have famous quotes by Bose and Nehru as ringtones. Is I&B ministry's objection justified? Tell us ...

Subhas Chandra Bose’s historic Dilli chalo speech, Rabindra Sangeet in Tagore's own voice and speeches by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru as mobile ringtones. Great marketing idea? Not as far as Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi is concerned.

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When the minister discovered that the Films Division had sold the original recordings of these famous speeches to a reputed production house — which in turn intended to resell them to a telecom major — he threw a fit. He is prepared to hold his ground in court should the need arise, sources told HT.

It all started when the firm invited the minister to launch the ringtones, purchased from the government's own archives under a special MoU.

While the production house seemed to be in the clear since it had legitimately purchased the rights to resell the original recordings, the minister was horrified that priceless national heritage had been sold by a government department for commercial use.

An inquiry established that a committee of the Films Division — which is under the I&B Ministry and controls a repository of archival speeches — had decided to enter into a partnership with the production house. A commercial agreement sanctioning the use of archival matter as ringtones had also been entered into. The committee's tenure, meanwhile, lapsed and, for reasons not specified, was not renewed.

The sources said since the archival speeches had not yet been handed over to the production house, the ministry had decided to cancel the agreement. Asked about the legal tenability of such a move, an official in the ministry retorted, "Let them go to court."