The AAP Government Contradicted Itself On How Much It Spent On Ads

Advertisement of new government schemes has become a tool of propaganda for political parties. It doesn’t matter who the ruling government is and to which party it belongs to.

But, here we are, talking about Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Since the AAP government came into power, Delhi government has invested a huge amount of money in advertising government schemes—roughly ₹78 crore annually, on advertisements, in the first four years of its tenure (2015-19).

The Delhi government has spent Rs 659.02 crore on advertisements since 2012-13, out of which ₹511.78 crore (or 77.66%) were in the past five and half years i.e., from when Arvind Kejriwal became chief minister in 2015.

An RTI (Right to Information) request was filed by me seeking information on a few points. And, the reply I got was shocking.

Given below are copies of contradictory RTI replies given by the Delhi government.

In the first picture, you can see that it said that it spent ₹72.6 crore in January 2020, on advertisements. Moreover, it said that it had spent a total of ₹199.98 crore crore in January-March 2020.

In June 2021, I had filed an RTI to the Delhi government, seeking details of the month-wise amount it spent over advertisements, of both the present year (2021), and for the months of January, February and March from the previous year (2020).

In its response to me, the Delhi government told me that it spent ₹15.32 crore on advertisements, in January 2020. Moreover, it said that it spent a total of ₹142.7 crore, in January-March 2020.

There is a discrepancy of ₹57.28 crore, as can be seen from the first and second pictures, in the month of January 2020, and therefore, the total amount spent in January-March 2020. As I asked on Twitter: “So, which figure is true?”

All images within the article have been provided by the author, RTI activist Vivek Pandey. Featured image is for representational purposes only. Photo credit: PTI.