No to poll ads

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s stated reluctance to spare security personnel for the IPL tournament during the on-going campaign for the Lok Sabha polls might have been an extreme step stemming from the fear of the unknown, but it is significant that the Congress Party was keen to advertise its wares during the IPL matches. Ad agencies handling the accounts of the Congress and BJP had sounded the IPL organisers for allowing political advertising in stadiums during the matches and also during the ball-to-ball telecast of the proceedings.

This could well have netted IPL an additional Rs 100 crore. But the IPL organisers decided against any sort of political advertising. If IPL was really after money, as critics allege, it could have accepted political advertisement from both the big parties and gone ahead with the pre-announced schedule. Political ads during IPL matches would have been the ultimate in catching the nation’s eyeballs but fortunately the purists prevailed and ruled out such a blatant intrusion of politics into sport.