PMK welcomes SC ruling on government ads

Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder S. Ramadoss on Thursday welcomed the Supreme Court's direction on pictures of political leaders in government advertisements.

In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court on Wednesday prohibited the use of photographs of political leaders, including ministers, in advertisements issued by the government and its agencies, saying that it leads to promotion of a personality cult.

Ramadoss said the restrictions should be extended to government programmes also.

In a statement issued here, he said: "The restrictions on government advertisements should be extended to government programmes also. The programmes and schemes executed with public money should not be named after any individual."

He said: "The names of the schemes referring to a political leader should be renamed as just government schemes. The government of India should draft and execute rules on the basis of the historical Supreme Court judgment."

"The advertisements given in our country, particularly in Tamil Nadu are designed to flatter and promote the ruling party leaders," he said.

According to Ramadoss, these government advertisements have become vehicles for fawning the ruling party leaders.

This bad culture has been escalating in the last 50 years and it is welcome that the Supreme Court has put brakes at a time when the craze for this fictitious publicity is peaking, he remarked.

According to him, giving advertisements for big money to print and visual media has become an indirect way of cajoling the media to carry their political news in a bigger way.