‘Seen and unseen forces’ block ‘unstoppable’ Arvind Kejriwal’s third anniversary advertisement
A government department has not yet cleared the Delhi chief minister’s video, which was meant to be telecast from Monday.
The Delhi government wants to release an advertisement on its third anniversary on Wednesday, but some “seen and unseen forces” are, quite literally, coming in the way.
In the video, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal says that the “seen and unseen forces” of the universe have helped his Aam Aadmi Party through all obstacles. But his own government departments are now proving to be an obstacle in approving the use of this sentence. The reason: no one can figure out which department will vouch for this claim.
The advertisement was meant to be telecast from Monday.
‘Which department will clear proverbs?’
The Directorate of Information and Publicity has been approving government advertisements ever since the Comptroller and Auditor General in March 2017 found that the Aam Aadmi Party had violated a Supreme Court order on advertisements and used unverified information in one of them.
When the Delhi government’s third anniversary video was sent for its approval, the directorate followed the process and sent it to various departments to get claims about them verified. Kejriwal learnt about the delay, and on Monday, called a meeting at his house to find out why, sources told The Indian Express. This is when he was told of the single sentence that was causing the delay.
The chief minister reacted to this with “disbelief”, according to sources at the meeting. “Kejriwal said the Supreme Court rules were being misused by the department to stall work,” one of them was quoted as saying. “The SC order is to check facts and figures. But which department will sign off on proverbs?”
What does Kejriwal say in the advertisement?
“In the past three years, corruption has decreased,” Kejriwal says in the proposed video advertisement. “Now, each and every penny is spent on development – electricity, water, school, mohalla clinics, roads, flyovers. There were many obstacles, too. God has helped us at each step because when you walk on the path of truth and honesty, the seen and unseen forces of the universe all assist you.”
The Directorate of Information and Publicity had sent the video to departments of power, health, education and water, among others, to get the claims verified. “Different departments said they had cleared it,” an official from the Chief Minister’s Office told The Indian Express. “But officials of the DIP singled out the line, citing ‘seen and unseen forces’, and told the CM [at Monday’s meeting] that they weren’t sure which department had to clear that particular line.”
Kejriwal had called for the meeting a day after he had asked Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash about the status of the advertisement.
“We only follow the Supreme Court guidelines when it comes to ads,” DIP chief Jayadev Sarangi said. “Respective departments send us content for the ads and, after making sure all guidelines have been followed, we clear them.”
The Aam Aadmi Party government completes three years in power in Delhi on February 14. It had won 67 of the 70 Assembly seats in the elections, just over two years after the AAP was formed. Its reign has been marked with a continuing power tussle with the lieutenant governor’s office, various allegations against many of its legislators, and in January, disqualification of as many as 20 MLAs.