Ruling on a case filed by the NGOs Common Cause and Centre for Public Interest Litigation, the Supreme Court has prohibited the use of public funds by political parties in government to develop “personality cults” around their leaders. Henceforth, only the pictures of the president, the prime minister and the chief justice of India may appear in government advertising. The order will be well received by the public, which stoically endures advertising where political leaders take credit for all sorts of successes, from submarine launches to space missions, which generally owe to the industry of other people. Unfortunately, government advertising tends to visually associate schemes and benefits with political individuals who may not have played a crucial role in bringing them to fruition.
However, the court’s order is not wholly consistent — while seeking to promote democracy by pruning the number of mugshots in advertising, it turns up the lights on a trinity. This will prevent whole platoons of ministers from appearing in state-funded advertising, but it will have the unfortunate effect of reserving the limelight for the head of state and the head of government. The cult of the political pantheon would be replaced by the cult of the sole leader, which is even more anti-democratic. At the same time, if it is legal to depict these three officials in advertising, why bar the heads of important democratic institutions? By the implicit logic of the ruling, why should the speaker of the Lok Sabha not feature in advertisements, for instance, or the army chief? With all respect, however, the chief justice must please be released from the onerous responsibility of appearing in advertisements. The law is supposed to be above it all.
