Modi’s Self-Promotion Advertisements Paid With Tax Payers’ Money- INR 71 Lakh Shamelessly Spent Every Day

Modi government and its expenditure on advertisements

Indira Gandhi pioneered the practice of spending big sums of money on commercials to increase her popularity; now, Modi ingests taxpayer funds for self-marketing. However, it is important to recognize that if political leaders could ensure their own popularity by investing several crores of the public’s money on advertisements, they could never lose elections.

In its nine-year tenure in office, the Narendra Modi administration has shelled out an amount in excess of INR 2,300 crore on print ads, or greater than INR 71 lakh every day. Several minor publications, some of which are hardly recognized in their native regions and apparently do not fulfill even the government’s own print criteria to be assigned for advertisements, are also among the top benefactors.

In accordance with official data, there were several hundred small publications on the list of a little over 5,169 beneficiaries, even though just 10 outlets received more than fifty percent of their entire advertising budget, which was approximately INR 1,300 crore, throughout these nine years.

The Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry’s print advertising policy defines small papers as publications having an average circulation between 2,000 and 25,000, with several exclusions. To satisfy the standards for empanelment, they must assure compliance to print standards such no content replication, required editorials, and correct attribution for all publications.

Gujarat Vaibhav and Jagruk Times, which rank 29th and 31st on this list of print publications with the largest central ad budget, respectively, are accused of breaking a number of these rules. So does Pradesh Today, at least on the surface; throughout the course of these nine years, the Madhya Pradesh daily ranked 45th with advertising expenditures totaling a little over INR 8.54 crore. Businessman Govind Purohit, whose pair of brothers are BJP members, runs Jagruk Times, while businessman Manish Videh runs Gujarat Vaibhav. Hridayesh Dikshit, previously a correspondent with Dainik Bhaskar, is the owner of the 13-year-old newspaper Pradesh Today, which has been published.

The government paid INR 3,260.79 crore on advertisement in electronic media and INR 3,230.77 crore on print media throughout an eight-year period, according to reports issued in December 2022.

Anurag Thakur, the information and broadcasting minister, informed the Lok Sabha on December 8,2022, that the Center has spent INR 6,491.56 crore on ads in newspapers and other forms of media since the Bharatiya Janata Party assumed office in 2014.

The minister provided the information in response to CPI MP Muniyan Selvaraj’s unstarred question, which asked for a year-by-year breakdown of the government’s advertising expenses since 2014. Selvaraj also requested information on the entire cost of advertising in foreign media for the time frame.

The government said that it spent the most on electronic media during the 2016–17 fiscal year, totaling INR 609.15 crore. The following years were INR 531.60 crore in 2015–16 and INR 514.28 crore in 2018–19, according to Thakur. The government has invested 76.84 in internet-based ads as of December 7, 2022.

The minister said that the government invested the most on print media advertisements in 2017–18, totaling INR 636.09 crore. INR 508.22 crore in 2015–16 and INR 468.53 crore in 2016–17 came after that. The government spent INR 91.96 crores on print advertising up till December 7, 2022. According to Thakur, the government bore all costs via the Central Bureau of Communication.

Pursuant to the Bureau of Outreach and Communication, which is part of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, in response to an RTI request made by activist Jatin Desai, the Central government spent an astounding INR 1.95 crore a day, on average, on advertisements between 2019 and 2020.

According to the Bureau, who provided a breakdown of the entire amount, print advertising accounted for INR 295.05 crore, digital platforms for INR 317.05 crore, and outdoor commercials for INR 101.10 crore. However, it was unable to provide any further details about the sum that the government had spent on marketing and exposure in foreign media.

The ministry stated that they had invested INR 3,767.2651 crore of the tax payer’s money on print, digital, outdoor advertising, and printed promotion in reply to an RTI inquiry from Mumbai-based Anil Galgali in June 2019.

The Modi administration spent INR 4,343.26 billion on media advertising and PR since the government of the BJP assumed office in June 2014, according to yet another RTI response from the Ministry to Galgali from a year earlier in May 2018.

Do government advertisements serve any public purpose?

The government spends hundreds of millions on pointless billboards featuring the faces of the prime minister and chief minister, and revenue from tax payers is used to buy full-page newspaper adverts, sometimes even the main page.

There is frequently no public benefit to these advertisements. On the anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi‘s birth, a state government run by the Congress would spend millions on advertisements in other states. J. Jayalalithaa plastered her photograph on practically every billboard and newspaper while serving as Tamil Nadu’s chief minister.

It is acceptable that some of the above does have a public benefit. if a government invests in public health promotion, as the Centre did, to its credit, during the Covid-19 epidemic. The audience can then comprehend the rationale.

And indeed, it is frequently the responsibility of the Center’s and the states’ information departments to release advertisements that spread public service messages. Although it is less obvious why public service advertisements must feature images of ministers.

Unnecessary advertising that primarily serves to promote specific politicians is a source of public concern. One may see that frighteningly frequent advertisements depicting the heads of the major political parties, state political figures, or bragging about the accomplishments of the government start to appear immediately before an election. The advertisements often end shortly when the Model Code of Conduct takes effect, but it is fairly obvious that the current administration has used the funds to attempt to better its own position.

Advertisements and self-promotion cannot guarantee electoral success

Does all of it help? Political leaders were unlikely to lose elections if they could ensure their own popularity by investing numerous crores of income from taxes on advertising. Nevertheless, no matter what amount of money they spend on advertisements, ruling parties continue to lose elections many a times.

The former PM Indira Gandhi is the finest illustration. She was the one who actually started the practice of utilizing the revenue from taxes for personal gain. Every town had hoardings during the Emergency, with phrases like “Emergency is era of discipline” emblazoned on them. Nevertheless, in 1977, Gandhi suffered a devastating setback.

The claim is that although these advertisements could only have a little impact, governments nonetheless favor them for a variety of other reasons. They are simply a massive ego trip for many political leaders. Others use them to stifle obnoxious allegiance (“Congratulations on being our magnificent leader….”). They also serve as a tool of reprimanding the media. The loss of government advertising might have a big negative impact on any media company’s bottom line because it contributes significantly to the income of any given publication or channel.

Moreover, when such advertisements are published, newspapers make money. As a result, they don’t complain. They fail to mention that leaders who display hoardings of their own or pay for their appearance on the first pages of newspapers are only doing it in totalitarian states.

The fact is that everyone enjoys the enormous sums that are spent on this type of pointless advertising, including politicians and the media. The fact is that the vast sums spent on such pointless advertising thrill everyone, including politicians and the mainstream media.

However, obviously, they do not thrill taxpayers. They are squandering their hard-earned money. But, if every elected official is engaged in it, what can we do but watch while our taxes get gobbled up by political PR machines?

Published By Naveenika Chauhan