Vacuous Vanity

Rs. 780 crores spent by DAVP in 6 months till March 2015, says one of the news headlines today.

Source: Economic Times

The Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) is the nodal agency of the Government of India, for advertising by various Ministries and organisations of Government of India, including public sector undertakings and autonomous bodies.

INR 780 crore or approximately USD 130 million, is by no means a small amount of money to be spent in publicity, over a duration of 6 months, even for a developed nation, let alone a developing country like India. Especially when there are no Central Government elections around for another 4 years.

During Manmohan Singh's decade long tenure, this was one of the issues for which the UPA government had been criticized by one and many, including yours truly.

Source: Times of India

Not that the UPA had too many achievements to show off; the bulk of the ad expenses were done to praise the INC stalwarts of yore, especially M.K. Gandhi and the Nehru-Gandhi Dynasty. A birth anniversary, a death anniversary, a marriage anniversary and bang, out there on the front, back and almost every page of the nations leading dailies, you will have these 'praise the Lord', on-your-face ads. And of course, one ad would never suffice, for, every Government department had to fall head over heel to praise the Royals of the INC. This frittering away of the taxpayer rupees was of course not limited to these special days, but definitely took such nauseating proportions on these days. Besides the usual news reports, perhaps there are RTI queries out there on the interwebs, which inform about how much of the taxpayer money was spent by DAVP during the UPA decade on such frivolous publicity, or for appropriate publicity too. If not, I will look at ways to gather information on this. There are reams of material available on this criminal pilferage during the UPA decade. But then, that was past, and nothing much can be done about it, however strongly you may feel about it. UPA was booted out in 2014, so that's some solace.

Fast forward to May 2015, 11 months into the NDA Government's tenure, and we see the same of this being repeated. To what proportion, some RTI queries and a comparison can help lay the facts bare. The point being, why are such extravagant amounts still being spent for ads in mainstream media, when it was promised that things would change for better? For sure the Government's achievements has to be let known to the people. But, isn't there a more modest way to achieve that? 'मन की बात' on All India Radio (AIR) is one way to do it. Not only has the medium helped communicate to the widest possible audience, thanks to the wide reach and diverse audience of AIR, it has also been beneficial for the broadcaster, in terms of ad revenue which this program has brought in.

Source: Twitter TL of

@ARangarajan1972

But, every now and then, why do we still see such full page, multiple page ads in the nations leading (mostly English) dailies?

Anand Ranganathan (currently, contributing editor Newslaundry.com) was sharing his views on this shameful waste of taxpayer money, on his Twitter TL, and I was listening in. He mentions that a mere tweet can be 10 times as effective as such ads. I obviously had my doubts, given India's internet penetration (or the lack of it), and that Twitter, by some estimates is used by 22.2 million Social media users (17% of SM users, a mere 8.8% of Internet users; via The Hindu). I am of the opinion that instead of such extravagant spend on national English dailies, the Government can actually spend just a fraction of it in Regional Language dailies and ensure a much wider reach.

But, Anand pointed out, and I agreed, that a Tweet from the Prime Minister's Office will actually be lapped up by media, always way too eager for official sound bites.

And the way any news media works, print or audio-video, those 140 characters would trigger a cascading effect, and end up in the 24/7 news cycle.


Communication, no doubt, is an important aspect of governance - optics matter. And the current NDA government is way too aware of this, having been witness to Atal Bihari Vajpayee's defeat in 2004. In 2019, the electorate will judge the Modi Government not just on what the government had promised and delivered, but also, how much the change the government has brought in, compared to the pilferage of taxpayer money during the decade-long Manmohan Singh Government. I only hope these thoughts are being communicated to the powers that be in an effective manner. On my part, I think I will go ahead and use the MyGov.in portal to send across this message. Hopefully, with several people sending in the same views, the Government will pay better heed to the advise.

Message to the NDA Government - 'Be the change you wanted the UPA Government to be'.

~MT