NEWS
ANALYSIS
SPECIALS
INTERVIEW
CAMPAIGN TRAIL
ISSUES
GALLERY
MANIFESTOS
OVERHEARD
INDIA SPEAKS!
DISCUSSION GROUP
CHAT
PREVIOUS RESULTS

SCHEDULE

BJP objects to Manmohan ad, family clarifies

The Bharatiya Janata Party has strongly objected to an advertisement that appeared in some national dailies on August 21 asking for votes for Dr Manmohan Singh, Congress candidate from South Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, and has urged the Election Commission to intervene.

Delhi pradesh BJP election campaign committee convenor Nand Kishore Garg urged Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill to include the expenses involved in the advertisement into the personal poll expenditure of Dr Singh.

However, a family member of Dr Singh said the advertisement was financed by well-wishers and family friends, and Dr Singh's own money was not used. ''Everything is well documented and transparent and anybody can see it,'' the family member said.

Garg told the EC, ''As per your instructions and guidelines issued from time to time, the expenditure on such types of advertisement is to be included in the expenditure of the candidate concerned.'' He demanded that the expenditure observer for South Delhi parliamentary constituency be instructed to get it verified from the poll-expenditure register maintained by Dr Singh.

The quarter-page advertisement with space courtesy India Business Network Ltd asks for votes for Dr Manmohan Singh and bears the names of some prominent persons including Khushwant Singh, Abid Hussain, Anjoli Ela Menon, Isher Judge Ahluwalia, R K Pachauri and ''many many others.'' It is designed by Anjolie Ela Menon.

Professor Vijay Kumar Malhotra, BJP candidate from South Delhi, while taking strong exception to the advertisement, said Dr Singh must have spent an estimated Rs 800,000 on the advertisement. By such standards he must have exceeded the personal expenses limit of Rs 1.4 million fixed by the EC.

He said they also tried to find out about the ''mysterious'' company India Business Network Ltd without any success. ''Whenever we rang up the company on the phone numbers given in the advertisement, we were asked to identify ourselves and then told that they would get back to us. That never happened.''

''This is a totally individualised campaign by a political leader,'' he said.

Dr Singh's family member said the advertisement was financed by industrialists Raunaq Singh and Charanjit Singh and some other well-wishers. ''Everything is very well documented and transparent. The money was given through cheques and even their numbers are documented. No cash is involved. They (the industrialists) will also show the money in their income tax,'' the family member said when contacted on the phone number given in the advertisement.

"It was designed by Anjolie Ela Menon free of cost". The family member however, did not disclose the amount given for the advertisement.

A meeting of about 150 ''well-wishers,'' including the ones whose names appear in the advertisement attended a meeting some time ago and decided to do something for Dr Singh. It was decided to put out the advertisement through some advertising agency. After the advertisement appeared in the papers a similar meeting was organised in which the number had swelled to 500.

The family member said they were willing to show all the documents to anybody, even the EC, if required.

In yet another objection to a programme telecast on Star TV in which a journalist being interviewed said Prof Malhotra had never won an election to Parliament, the BJP leader said the statement is totally ''incorrect and malicious.'' ''I was twice returned to the Lok Sabha -- in 1977 from south Delhi and in 1989 from Sadar,'' he revealed.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this interview