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I get six papers every morning. I go through their contents, absorb a few items which I think are important, and dump their supplements into the wastepaper basket without opening them. Nothing in papers riles me more than the number of government ads, all of which, if they are from Congress-ruled states, carry pictures of chief ministers and ministers along with those of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh with claims of achievements in agriculture, industry, education etc.
Who pays for this extravagant waste of money? The tax payer — you and I — because all governmental public relations departments are integral parts of our bureaucracy maintained by taxpayers’ money. Newspapers are not in any position to object to this practice as their sustenance comes from advertising, and the government is the single-largest advertiser in the country. But surely, something has to be done by somebody to rectify this sorry state of affairs. The only thing that occurs to me is setting up a regulatory body which will define limits beyond which government departments cannot go to advertise themselves, and check their claims of achievements before they are published. The Indian Standards Institute (ISI) does this in the case of products put in the market, and verifies their claims before it issues them permits. A body like the ISI could be instituted with similar powers regarding government advertisements. Come to think of it, talking about oneself is regarded as bad manners; praising oneself as an extreme form of vulgarity. Mayawati erecting her own statues at public expense has been castigated by everyone. She has made a laughing stock of herself. Why spare netas who impose their pictures on us everyday and make us pay for them? In the same league Pranab Mukherjee’s advice to Foreign Minister SM Krishna and his deputy Shashi Tharoor to get out of five- star hotels and occupy bungalows allotted to them shows all concerned to be a bunch of humbugs. The two were paying for their board and lodging out of their own pockets, and not out of public exchequer. If taken to its logical conclusion, no minister of government should be eating at a five-star hotel or restaurant because that all appears to be a vulgar display of opulence. Neither Pranab nor any of his ministerial colleagues are known to refuse being lavishly entertained. A gourmet meal with drinks costs upwards of Rs 5,000 per head. No one cares if somebody else is paying for it. However, both the ministers looked very shame-faced when they quit their hotels. They have a few awkward questions to answer. Why did they not move into the bungalows allotted to them? All the tale of their being renovated to their needs is humbug. They are well maintained by the PWD and habitable. If they wanted some changes, they could have been made while they were in residence. Unless, of course, their vastu experts advised them to change entrances, doors and directions of their toilet seats. We can assume that neither minister is a believer in vastu. And who has the right to tell another how he or she should be spending money? Most certainly, not media persons. Journalists are the biggest freeloaders in our society today. Have you ever seen the editor of a national daily pay for his meal in a five-star hotel? Not even the self-righteous editor of The Indian Express, which carried the "news" of Krishna staying at Maurya Sheraton and Tharoor at Taj Man Singh, as if the two had been caught red-handed committing a crime. Baby-faced Tharoor looked suitably guilty as if his mom had nabbed him stealing a carton of icecream from the family fridge. Will meet in Hardwar A few years ago my sister’s son Tanuj Leekha married Abhilasha at New Delhi. I saw her only once during the marriage festivity, but was charmed by her looks, and looked forward to seeing her again. A few days ago, she died in New York, and her parents, husband and father-in-law brought her ashes to be immersed in the holy Ganga. While we were taking her ashes to Hardwar, I read a couplet on the rear of a truck: Zindagi rahi to baar baar milengey; nahin to Hardwar milengey. (Contributed by Jagjit Puri, Panchkula) |
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We know that these claims
are vastly exaggerated. States ruled by Opposition parties do not lag
behind in self-aggrandisement, and also publish pictures of their chief
ministers, ministers, deputy ministers etc. Only Sonia and Manmohan are
missing. Their claims of having made advances in every field are no more
credit-worthy than those ruled by the Congress. Since every page ad in
any of our national dailies costs Rs 1 lakh or more, the total amount
spent on governmental self-publicity runs into crores of rupees every
day — enough to set up dozens of schools and clinics.