Product and services that are of fine quality and affordably
priced find instant market among the people. Only those which are of inferior
quality and exorbitantly priced require boisterous marketing to push them onto
the people. So also bogus firms which vanish after defrauding people to the
tune of several crores of rupees resort to hectic and enticing publicity
campaign to hoodwink the gullible. Marketing itself is a thriving industry
in the present day world and more a
product or service is in competitive market, the more the expenditure incurred
in marketing publicity. The marketing firms produce what are called ‘Marketing
Features’ and ‘Advertorial and Promotional Features’ which are scripted by
expert writers who could spin rope out of sand.
Such experts in fantasies seem to have been drafted by the
ADMK government to produce such ‘Marketing Features’ and ‘Advertorial and
Promotional Features’ appearing in the same names as advertisements in all
English newspapers in the country every day along with one full page ad of a
government department. The campaign of ‘one year achievements of TN Chief
Minister Puratchi Thalaivi Amma Jayalalitha’ started on May 16 with a six pages
of advertisement in all dailies in Tamil/ English all over India. Till the first
week of June, the ad campaign has not ended. The campaign should have cost the exchequer not less than Rs.100 crore;
the exact amount can be ascertained later by filing an application under Right
to Information Act.
The question is, should a government in a democratic system
require such a fanfare for celebrating the completion of one year. If the
regime has a popular mandate and if at all its so-called achievements have
fully and fruitfully reached the people, do they require a month-long
publicity? It is ridiculous that even the sanctions and allocations of funds
done in the normal course by the government/ departments are listed as
‘achievements of Amma’! In the case of some departments like ‘Information and
Publicity’ and ‘Tourism’ the sum of ‘allocations’ may be lesser than the cost
of full page ads in so many dailies. Even though the feature-writers had taken
so much pains to ascribe all the progress made by Tamil Nadu so far under
various rules, to the one-year regime of Jayalalitha, people are wise enough to
understand the duplicity of the bogus claims.
All these apart, is Jayalalitha justified in spendings much
public money to boost her image, purportedly at the national level to serve her
larger ambitions? Is she morally and legally correct? Obviously not! This is
not the contention of some layman, but of the senior most lawyer of the country
and former Attorney General of India,
Soli Sorabjee, who in his column in ‘The New Indian Express’ on May 27 has
written the following:
“Obscene Public Expenditure: Huge amounts were spent by the
Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh on constructing statues of the former
chief minister and her party icons and leaders. What is the motivation?
Apparently it is to glorify Mayawati and an attempt to win the heart and minds
of the people whose votes are crucial in an election. This gimmick did not
work, as is evident from the recent state Assembly election results. People
were not impressed by Mayawati’s grand statues. They were frustrated and angry
with the dismal performance of her government. Another reason could be that
statues are enduring and would be able to withstand the winds of change and
thereby ensure immortality for the person commemorated. This hankering after
immortality was manifested in some African states which built huge statues
idolising their leaders. Many of these statues have since crumbled in the dust
and ‘nothing beside remains’ as pictorially portrayed in Shelly’s sonnet,
Ozymandias of Egypt.
“The crucial issue is about the morality and legality of
expenditure of vast public sums from the treasury. The same issue is involved
in the expenditure of vast sums of public monies in inserting advertisements in
newspapers as was recently done by J Jayalalithaa, the chief minister of Tamil
Nadu, supposedly at the cost of Rs 30 crore. People want to know who is paying
for these advertisements, where is the money coming from, are these
advertisements really required, and what purpose do they serve? A Pubic
Interest Litigation (PIL) is pending in the Delhi High Court in which it is
contended that spending public monies on ads is illegitimate expenditure whose
burden ultimately falls on citizens. A more formidable contention in the PIL is
that an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act is committed if a public
servant abuses his position and thereby obtains for himself or for any other
person any valuable thing or pecuniary advantage. Obtaining goodwill through
advertisements and other promotional publicity stunts could certainly be
regarded as valuable and thus attract the Prevention of Corruption Act. The
Delhi High Court has taken cognisance of the PIL and issued notices to the
director general of the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity, as
also to the secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, asking them to
respond to the PIL. The fate of the PIL is eagerly awaited.
“Legality apart, it seems every vestige of political
morality has been jettisoned. Does it not pinch the conscience of the public
functionaries that this expenditure on ads for promoting their image or that of
a particular political party is obscene in light of the prevailing adverse
economic condition of the people? I am afraid the question is premised on the assumption
of a conscience in our political leaders.”
The PIL contends that public money is being spent on
eulogizing leaders with definite linkage to political party in power. Such
spending is also violating certain aspects of Prevention of Corruption Act and
needs to be investigated. If seeks to prevent such spending in future by
bringing it under the ambit of Comptroller and Auditor General of India. It
also seeks an investigation into the role of government official who approved
such expenditures.
The fate of the PIL in Delhi High Court is eagerly awaited
not only in the capital but also in Chennai, based on which many PILs are
likely to be filed before the Madras High Court to nail the exorbitant misuse
of public money in advertisements for self glorification and promoting the
image of Jayalalitha and the officials who approved such expenditures will
become answerable to the court.
All these political immorality and illegality apart,
Jayalalitha’s ad frenzy has boomeranged and she has become a butt of jokes and
condemnation in the social media like twitter, blogs etc. – laughable and
despicable in world opinion!
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