Rajiv Gandhi‘s 2011 birth anniversary: 108 ads across 48 pages in 12 newspapers surveyed by churumuri.
Indira Gandhi‘s 2011 birth anniversary: 64 ads across 32 pages in the same 12 newspapers.
Now, the Union information and broadcasting ministry has put a figure to the advertising blitz: Rs 7 crore in all; Rs 4.79 crore on Rajiv’s and Rs 2.46 crore on Indira’s ads.
The I&B ministry’s computation, which obviously includes other non-Delhi and non-English papers, does not take into account the death anniversaries of the two, or the birth and death anniversaries of Jawaharlal Nehru. In all, 393 pages of advertising were published on the six anniversaries, on the pages of 12 newspapers this year.
Last year, on the 19th death anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi, the historian Ramachandra Guha wrote in an edit-page article in The Telegraph, Calcutta:
“A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that on May 21, 2010, perhaps Rs 60 or 70 crore were spent by the taxpayer — without his and her consent — on praising Rajiv Gandhi. Since the practice has been in place since 2005, the aggregate expenditure to date on this account is probably in excess of Rs 300 crore.”
Image: courtesy Mail Today
Also read: Nehru birthday: 58 ads amounting to 26¼ pages
Nehru death anniversary: 24 ads over 11 pages
Rajiv birthday: 108 ads across 48 pages
Rajiv death anniversary: 69 ads, 41 pages in 12 papers
Indira Gandhi birthday: 64 ads, 32 pages
churumuri 
I’m getting really tired of this “back of the envelope quote”, Archive it already :D
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I say atleast this money is going to media houses and is legitimate. Circulation of money is good!
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for a country of India’s size and population, 7 crs is not a big amount. A small size Corporate’s media budget will be much above that. and it is the card rate of the press that’s published…
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It’s not the 7 crore but the blatant glorification of two questionable individuals who happened to rule the country, specially the wannabe dictator Indira. How many of you know that when this woman was imprisoned in 1978 for fraud and misconduct, her two chamchas hijacked an Indian Airlines plane IC-410 to bargain for her release? Also, for this “great act” these two chamchas were rewarded with party tickets and they became ministers, instead of being prosecuted as terrorists and criminals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_hijackings#1970s
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My view: Why have we not read about this in the Media in more stringent terms? I do not recall much of a hue and cry on this point! 300 Crores is a lot of money!
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