Punjab Akali Leaders Demand Check on Ad Spending by AAP Govt
Bhagwant Mann – who used to work in cheap comedy shows – is a totally incompetent and illiterate politician.
By Rakesh Raman
The leaders of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) have urged the Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit to hold the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government accountable for splurging public money on extravagant advertisements.
Reports suggest that the AAP government led by chief minister (CM) Bhagwant Mann is spending lavishly on ads and in just 2 months ending May 2022 paid a whopping Rs. 37 crore for avoidable publicity.
A delegation led by SAD leader Manpreet Ayali urged the governor to stop AAP from squandering public funds on a PR (public relations) exercise aimed at furthering its party agenda at the cost of Punjabis.
Bhagwant Mann – who used to work in cheap comedy shows – is a totally incompetent and illiterate politician. He is trying to draw public attention by giving his photographs in the ads while Punjab is facing a severe socio-economic crisis under his leadership.
Currently, Punjab is under a debt of Rs. 2.63 lakh crore, but Bhagwant Mann is carelessly spending huge money on his personal promotion. Surprisingly, an uneducated Bhagwant Mann moves with a 42-car convoy while the people of Punjab are suffering under unprecedented inflation, religious animosity, drug addiction, joblessness, and lawlessness.
While Bhagwant Mann – because of his illiteracy and naivety – works as a puppet under AAP chief and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, both are spending enormous money to promote themselves in other states such as Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh where elections are going to take place.
The Right to Information (RTI) replies by the Directorate of Information and Publicity reveal that the Delhi Government’s spending on advertisements increased by a whopping 4,273% over 10 financial years ending with 2021-2022, particularly under Kejriwal’s rule.
After getting advertisements from Kejriwal, most corrupt media outlets do not question AAP’s wrongdoings and the TV anchors particularly do not interject when AAP leaders divert the issues or tell flagrant lies in TV shows to evade crucial questions about their alleged corruption cases and misgovernance.
While the AAP is controlling the traditional media companies with the power of public money, it is being observed that there are also attempts to suppress or remove information related to AAP’s corruption cases from new-media sites such as Wikipedia, which is a free online encyclopedia.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.
He has also launched the “Power Play: Lok Sabha Election 2024 in India” editorial section to cover the news, events, and other developments related to the 2024 election.
