Why only PM Narendra Modi’s pictures in advertisements, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi asks Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: At a time when the opposition is accusing Narendra Modi of creating a cult image of himself and not giving due importance to his cabinet colleagues, the NDA government on Wednesday batted for its ministers and told the Supreme Court that their photos be allowed to be published in government advertisements.

Attorney general Mukul Rohatgi requested a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and P C Ghose to reconsider its earlier decision permitting use of photographs of only President, PM and the Chief Justice of India in advertisements.

Rohatgi said publishing picture of only the PM would lead to personality cult which was against the very spirit of its judgment meant to curb the cult image of politicians. "Ministers have become nameless and faceless. Only PM's face is shown in government advertisements. Each minister is as important as PM and there is no basis for allowing photos of only three persons. Why not the photographs of CM and ministers in the Centre and states? This is a democracy and creation of a personality cult would not augur well," Rohatgi told the bench.

Terming the SC verdict "akin to censorship imposed by the court", the AG said that aminister was responsible for work done by his ministry and he must be allowed to inform the people about his service as otherwise he would be thrown out in the next election.

The practice of splashing photos of CMs, ministers and politicians of ruling parties in government advertisements was brought to an end by the SC in May last year. It passed a series of guidelines to curb misuse of public money for promoting political personalities following a PIL by Common Cause through advocate Meera Bhatia. The top court had held that publishing photos of politicians alongside a government policy could develop a personality cult which was a direct antithesis of democratic functioning. The verdict had caused heart-burn among CMs, with major states seeking review of the judgment.

Challenging the order, Rohatgi told the bench that the judgement was against the federal structure as CM was as important in a state as the PM and a CM could not be restrained from telling people about the work done by the state government.

He, however, admitted that the Centre failed to project a right picture on the issue while hearing took place in the case and requested the bench to rectify the error in the verdict which encroached upon the executive's domain. "Court has no jurisdiction to say what and how a government should advertise. Every penny that government spends is authorised by Parliament which can refuse budget for ads," he said.