Modi’s claim on Sardar Patel ad spending not true

New Delhi: Narendra Modi might be a master on attacking his rival UPA government on issues how to put a spoke on Congress wheel. But this time luck was not in his favour.

His claim that the UPA had forgotten Sardar Patel till this year is far off the mark. As per the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP), the UPA government has spent Rs 8.5 crore in advertisements to commemorate Sardar Patel’s birth anniversary over the last four years.

Ironically, the shoe may be on the other foot. In its tenure — between 1999 and 2004 — the NDA government did not issue advertisements for Patel for two years in a row in 2001 and 2002.

“On earlier birth anniversaries of Sardar Patel, no advertisements were seen. Today, newspapers across the country have advertisements on Sardar Saheb … this is the Gujarat effect,” Modi said on Thursday speaking at the foundation laying ceremony of 182-metre tall “Statue of Unity” of Patel at Kevadia in Gujarat.

However, DAVP records show that UPA spent Rs 30 lakh in 2009-10, Rs 4.10 crore (2010-11), Rs 2.7 crore (2011-12) and Rs 1.4 crore (2012-13).

When asked about Modi’s allegations, information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari said, “It is evident that the newly-anointed prime ministerial candidate of the BJP doesn’t allow fact to come in the way of myth-making.” UPA missed issuing an advertisement in 2008, which Tewari said could be due to the severe economic recession that year.

However, the amount spent on Patel by the UPA is much lower than the amount spent every year on the Nehru-Gandhi family’s birth and death anniversaries.

DAVP spent about Rs 33 crore on birth and death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Rs 21 crore for former PM Rajiv Gandhi, Rs 14.5 crore for Indira Gandhi and Rs 9.38 crore for Jawaharlal Nehru in print advertisements.

When asked about the difference in ad spends Tewari said, “This should not be looked at from the prism of advertising spends because the cost can depend on various factors like the size of the advertisements or costs that year. The real point of inflection is consistency of effort which shows our commitment as opposed to those who pay lip-service and are trying to appropriate the legacy of a leader without even reading it.”