Public funds being used to build brand Kejriwal?

BJP wants TV advertisement withdrawn as it brands politicians, officials and media as villains

GN Bureau | June 20, 2015


#aap   #arvind kejriwal   #bjp   #congress   #television   #tv   #advertisement  

The Bharatiya Janata Party has termed the advertisement of the AAP-led Delhi government that is being broadcast on television channels as a "violation" of the supreme court's order and threatened to approach the apex court. The BJP wants it be withdrawn soon.

The advertisement campaign is a two-minute TV spot in which it makes claim that Kejriwal has money to spare for improving the life of people because of what he has saved by stopping corruption. The campaign is expected to run for a week and the slots have cost the state exchequer about Rs 1.5 crore.

Decrying "personality cult" as an anti-thesis of democracy, the SC had recently barred publication of photos of leaders in government advertisements except those of the President, Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India.

The BJP has objected to the implied meaning of the advertisement. BJP's national secretary R P Singh said even though chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's face is not seen, the way his name has been repeatedly taken as a 'messiah of poor' while leaders of other political parties, administrative officials and media have been projected as villains was a gross "violation" of apex court's order.

Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit called the advertisement as ‘pathetic’ and said that it only glorified Kejriwal as an equal to god.

“I have never seen such an advertisement anywhere in India where a person is glorified almost to be equal to God perhaps that is what [Arvind] Kejriwal ji thinks he is. It is complete misuse of money and it is full of lies,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Swaraj Abhiyaan has termed the Delhi government's latest TV commercials as an example of "political corruption" and "highly regressive". Swaraj Abhiyaan leader Prashant Bhushan in a series of tweets said the ad amounted to a "crass" projection of Kejriwal apart from being "crude abuse" of funds, which was "against" a supreme court order.

"Apart from being a crass and crude abuse of funds the Kejriwal ad on TV is sexist and projects women as servants of their husbands. Shocking," Bhushan, a senior Supreme Court lawyer tweeted.

The group, of which Yogendra Yadav is also a member, also attacked the ad for being "misleading" as it came in the backdrop of "6 per cent rise in power tariffs."

"The heart of the problem, however, is that this TV commercial unashamedly abuses public funds to create a personality cult for Arvind Kejriwal. It sings paeans of the AAP leader and tries to project him as a messiah," added the statement.

Comments

 

Other News

Climate actions being implemented to deal with impact of heat waves

India’s climate actions cut across various sectors and are being implemented through various programs and schemes of different union ministries, departments and state/ union territory governments.  The government of India through concerned ministries and departments organises workshops, exhibiti

Banks must hear borrowers before declaring their accounts as frauds: SC

In a judgment with far-reaching implications, the Supreme Court has held that the civil consequences of an account being declared as fraud under the Reserve Bank of India (Frauds Classification and Reporting by Commercial Banks and Select FIs) Directions, 2016 or its Master Directions on Fraud amount to ci

India’s forest cover increases by 5,516 sq km in four years

The Dehradun-based Forest Survey of India (FSI), an organization under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, carries out the assessment of forest cover biennially since 1987 and the findings are published in the India State of Forest Report (ISFR). As per the latest ISFR 2021, there is a

Steps taken to meet higher power demand of April-May

While the average growth of energy requirement in the country for 2023-24 viz-a-viz 2022-23 has been estimated as 4.9%, the months of April and May have been projected as high demand period. During the current year, the peak demand is expected to be around 229 GW during the summer period. The government ha

Millets to make comeback in army ration after half a century

As the UN has declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets, the Indian Army has steered introduction of millets flour in the rations of soldiers. This landmark decision will ensure troops are supplied with native and traditional grains after over half a century, when these were discontinued in favour

Central Bank Digital Currency has game-changing potential

When discussing digital currency, you might think of one or two well-known varieties. There is the digital representation of currency that you access with mobile and online banking services. This currency is the liability of a commercial bank. There is also cryptocurrency, a digital medium of exchange issu

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook    Twitter    Google Plus    Linkedin    Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter