The Hindu Business Line : Voting for the Taj

New Delhi, July 6 Sometime after the sun has set over the Taj Mahal this Saturday, the status of the heritage monument as one of the ‘New 7 Wonders’ of the world would have been decided. And irrespective of whether the 17th century monument is crowned as the most popular, Swiss businessman, Mr Bernard Weber, would have made a substantial amount from the furious text messages (SMS) that are believed to be pouring in.

This, however, doesn’t seem to concern a large part of the country, including corporate houses like Airtel and HLL to name a few, the Government, practically all of the mainstream media and personalities like A.R. Rahman. After all, they argue, it is a matter of national pride.

The Ministry of Tourism did its little bit, well aware of the fact that it is an “unofficial poll which even the UNESCO has distanced itself from”.

But what’s important, says a Ministry official, is the visibility, the high profile that the campaign would lend to one of India’s most visited sites.

CNN-IBN, which ran an enthusiastic campaign at the end of its daily news bulletins, and a story ‘on the truth behind the poll’, says it doesn’t matter that someone else is making money. “I do agree that the media builds up such nationalistic themes like 60 years of Independence, but the intention was not to capture more eyeballs but to provide a sort of relief to the usual stories about corruption and bomb blasts,” said Mr Radhakrishnan Nair, Executive Director, CNN-IBN. The Channel decided not to pursue the exclusive coverage rights of the ceremony. At a cost of $1 million, it was a tad too steep.

For the Future Group, setting up voting kiosks at its Orchid City Centre Mall in Mumbai was its small contribution to help ensure Taj makes it to the top of the list. “I don’t think any corporate house is gaining mileage out of this, we are all proud of the Taj and would love to see it win,” said Mr Joseph Cordeiro, GM Marketing, Future Group.

Mr Prasoon Joshi, Regional Creative Director for South and South-East Asia, McCann Erickson, is not buying into the hype, although the Taj does happen to be his most favourite monument. “I can understand SMS campaigns for causes like justice for Jessica Lal, but who is anybody to rank the cultural and historic heritage of any country,” he said.

Jason Dsouza, from JND Technologies, helped Travel Port India set up a dedicated Web site.

The Web site, he said, is seeing robust traffic in the last few months led by Indian netizens that is not necessarily migrating to the official site. “Try registering your vote online,” he explained, “it’s a lengthy process that collects some personal information before you actually vote. Going by the popularity of this campaign you could judge the database they would have at the end of it,” said Mr Dsouza.

Free for every first vote, and Rs 3 per vote thereafter, votes can also be bought by organisations and governments.

The fine print specifies Weber’s organisation, New Open World Corporation, “reserves the right at its absolute discretion to exclude votes” that are cast.