When Mumbai-based activist Anil Galgali sought details from the centre’s Bureau of Outreach and Communication (BOC) about the expenditure made by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on advertisements and publicity through different media since it assumed office, it was known that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government splurged a whopping Rs. 4,343.26 crore on the same. In the last fiscal itself, the government spent Rs. 955.46 crore on advertisements and publicity through different media.
Between April-December 2017, the government spent Rs. 333.23 crore on the print medium alone, with the total figure of the last fiscal reaching Rs. 955.46 crore.
As per the reply, the government spent Rs. 79.72 crore on outdoor publicity, Rs. 424.85 crore on print media and Rs. 448.97 crore on electronic media for the period June 2014-March 2015. In the fiscal 2015-16, the expenditure on all the three mediums increased substantially. Rs. 118.43 crore, Rs. 510.69 crore and Rs. 541.99 crore were spent on outdoor publicity, print media and electronic media respectively. The total expenditure in this fiscal year was Rs. 1171.11 crore.
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The BJP continued with its upward trend in terms of expenditure in the 2016-17 fiscal. It spent Rs. 185.99 crore on outdoor publicity, Rs. 463.38 crore on the print and Rs. 613.78 crore on electronic media, taking the total expenditure up to Rs. 1263.15 crore.
It is no wonder for the BJP to splurge so much money on its advertisement, since its coffers are full with money it has extracted from the common man and scams.