6 pages for Ambedkar; 393 pages for 'The Family'
6 December 2011
PRITAM SENGUPTA writes from New Delhi: For all the lip service it pays
"dalits and the downtrodden", for all tokenism of a Dalit as speaker
of Lok Sabha, and for all the buzz about a possible Dalit replacement
for Manmohan Singh as prime minister, the Congress-led UPA government
has issued a measly six pages of ads in 12 newspapers to mark the
death anniversary of the father of the Indian Constitution—and the
icon of Dalits—Dr B.R. Ambedkar.
In contrast, the State government of Uttar Pradesh, headed by Mayawati
of the Bahujan Samaj Party, has issued seven pages in the same 12
newspapers surveyed by sans serif.
The Centre's six pages of ads for Ambedkar is in stark contrast to the
393 pages of ads issued by various ministries and departments of the
Union government and Congress-run State governments to mark the three
birth and three death anniversaries of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi
and Rajiv Gandhi in 2011.
While various ministries were falling over each other to sing hosannas
for the three ex-PMs, only the ministry of social justice and
empowerment is in evidence for Dr Ambedkar. The only State government
advertiser is the Delhi commission for safai karmacharis.
***
The breakup of the Ambedkar ads today are as under:
Hindustan Times: 24-page main issue; 2 Ambedkar ads amounting to
1½ broadsheet pages
The Times of India: 26-page issue; 1 ad amounting to 1 broadsheet page
Indian Express: 20-page issue; 1 ad amounting to 1 broadsheet page
Mail Today (compact): 36-page issue; 1 ad amounting to 1 compact page
The Hindu: 20-page issue; 1 ad amounting to 1 broadsheet page
The Pioneer: 16-page issue; 1 ad amounting to 1 broadsheet page
The Statesman: 16-page issue; 1 ad amounting to 1 broadsheet page
The Telegraph: 24-page issue; 0 ads amounting to 0 broadsheet pages
***
The Economic Times: 24-page main issue; 0 ads
Business Standard: 14-page issue; 0 ads
Financial Express: 18-page issue; 0 ads
Mint (Berliner): 24-page issue; 0 ads
***
Last year, on the 19th death anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi, the
historian Ramachandra Guha wrote in an edit-page article in The
Telegraph, Calcutta:
"A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that on May 21, 2010,
perhaps Rs 60 or 70 crore were spent by the taxpayer — without his and
her consent — on praising Rajiv Gandhi. Since the practice has been in
place since 2005, the aggregate expenditure to date on this account is
probably in excess of Rs 300
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