Sample the facts. The government is already estimated to have spent about Rs 800 million on print, TV, radio and outdoor advertisements on a campaign called 'India Shining'. If government sources are to be believed, another Rs 3-4 billion would be spent as the media blitz is ramped up in the run up to an early general elections, the date of which have not been finalised yet.

At the moment, it is the finance ministry that is spending money on a campaign where the bottomline is that "India is shining and you've never had a better time to shine brighter." This includes floating images of a booming stock market, providing free primary education, pension and life insurance schemes for the senior citizens, cheaper air and train travel, etc.

But indications are that soon other ministries too would flood the media with their individual achievements, highlighting the fact that the present Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition government's five year rule has resulted in a buoyant and vibrant India where the foreign exchange reserves are at a high and the growth line being northward bound.

According to a senior government official in the information and broadcasting ministry, which would be largely monitoring the media blitz, "These things are done by every government. Only this time it seems bigger because there is more to be conveyed and the ministries are flush with funds."

For example, the road surface transport ministry, through the National Highway Authority of India, alone is expected to shell out about Rs 450 million in the first phase of the media campaign. The health ministry is another organisation that is expected to advertise heavily the positive aspects of the government, though it for sure that a major portion of the spend would go to India's pubcasters, Doordarshan and All India Radio. As per information available with indiantelevision.com, Rs 500 million is what the health ministry has set aside for Prasar Bharati alone.

According to KS Sarma, CEO of Prasar Bharati, which manages DD and AIR, his endeavour would be to corner the maximum of government business to boost the organisation's ad revenue.

An I&B ministry unit, Directorate of Audio-Visual Publicity (DAVP), which releases government ads to the media at rates much lower than the prevailing market prices, is already seized of the matter and meetings are being held there to chalk out a strategy to try be equitable to the media with the largesse of the media blitz.

A thinking in the government is also that in the electronic medium, apart from the news channels, the general entertainment ones too should be heavily used. Insertions between a Saas, or an Astitva, or a Antakshari, for example, would reach out to that section of the populace that probably cannot be tapped through news channels.

OPPOSITION POLITICAL PARTIES UPSET

However, the government's planned publicity blitz hasn't gone down too well with those political parties that are not part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition ruling the country.

For starters, the country's main opposition, Congress Party, has dubbed the blitz as "blatant misuse of taxpayers' money."

A senior Congress leader told indiantelevision.com, "Even we have been in power and longer than the BJP. But never has public money so blatantly been used to propagate the government's image. And for what?"

Though the Congress has been making noises about unleashing a campaign to oppose this, nothing concrete has emerged yet, apart from the party's spin doctors countering the government's 'feel good factor' line with 'fail good factor.'

Another criticism is the employment of an outside ad agency by the government to handle the 'India Shining' campaign. Critics point out that even if one forgets how this particular agency was chosen --- apparently the methodology for the account pitch is not known --- sidelining of DAVP (Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity) in this regard throws up various questions. Had the campaign been released to the Indian media through the DAVP, the savings would have been substantial as unlike professional agencies, DAVP has its own (low) rates on which ads are given to the media, critics explain.

"Forget the DAVP," points out ad agency Equus Red Cell CEO Suhel Seth, "if brand (prime minister) Vajpayee and India are so strong and shining, then why indulge in the filibustering and spend my (read taxpayers') money to tell me so?"

Pointing out that his agency is not interested in any political party or government account, Seth further added, "If India is doing well and everything is booming, then people should feel it and come to know about it by themselves. Why a media campaign?"

But the government, flush from the smell of victory in the assembly elections held last year, is oozing confidence.

"The opposition and the Congress have nothing of substance and consequence to take up and that's why they are harping on the media campaign," says I&B minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Defending the government's publicity blitz, Prasad told indiantelevision.com, "Has the opposition disagreed with the achievements listed? No. What is bothering them is the money part, but the government is also an entity and, as one, it has the right to spend money to highlight its achievements."

Taking up from here, another senior BJP leader said, "When a listed company unleashes a publicity campaign, for example, do the shareholders of the company feel that their money is being wasted or misused? No. They realise it's good for the organisation and whatever the government is doing, it's for the country."

Such an explanation is certainly stretching things and it is expected that the criticism by non-NDA political parties of the government's publicity campaign would get more shrill in coming days. Even as various government arms get into the publicity act.

The media industry, for one, is not complaining though. Not surprising with this kind of ad money rolling in.