New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi has written to Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh asking the government to stop ostentatious
displays and cause minimum inconvenience to the public for the functions
that are organised every year at Delhi's many samadhis, or memorials, for leaders. She wants these displays to be drastically reduced.The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has begun to action Mrs Gandhi's request and will start taking steps to reduce the number of functions held at these memorials. The letter was sent a few days after former prime minister and Mrs Gandhi's husband Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary on August 20 and before Mrs Gandhi went abroad for medical treatment.
The government at present organises six functions to mark birth and death anniversaries at the memorials of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri. Another 10 are organised by various trusts and the government facilitates these functions.
There was much criticism of the government's spending on advertisements by ministries and departments to mark Rajiv Gandhi's anniversary this year. Mrs Gandhi's letter, however, does not mention ads.
Last month, an NGO, Foundation for Restoration of National Pride, filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court, asking it to stop the government from "eulogising" and "glorifying" its achievements using public money. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the petition, along with one which objects to the government spending crores on birth and death anniversaries of leaders.
In May, a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by NDTV established that the Central government has spent Rs. 58 crore on ads in the last three years. Rs. 15 crore were spent on ads honouring Mahatma Gandhi; another Rs. 12 crore were used for ads in honour of BR Ambedkar.
Ads on the Gandhi family (Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi) added up to roughly Rs. 22 crore, and that did not include the campaign involving Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary.
The RTI also reveals that state governments are equally generous with their advertising expenditure - Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Uttarakhand are the big spenders. In Andhra Pradesh, Rs. 8 crore have been spent in three years on ads for former chief minister YSR Reddy who died in a helicopter crash in 2009.
The slowing economy has put the government in austerity mode. As part of its attempts to check expenses, five-star hotels are off-limits for seminars and official lunches and foreign travel by officials is being restricted.
From: NDTV
