FM to drop ad on economy

Accordingly, the government has decided to suspend the information and investment promotion campaign for seven weeks.

"In view of the directions issued by the Election Commission, the finance ministry will suspend this campaign until the first week of December 2003," the government said in the statement.

The Election Commission's instructions to the information and broadcasting ministry on the campaign launched by the finance ministry had been conveyed to it, the statement added.

The Election Commission yesterday said the release of advertisements highlighting the achievements of the BJP-led government at the Centre in the five states going to polls was a "clear violation" of the model code of conduct and directed that such a practice be stopped forthwith.

"With the announcement of elections on October 6, the model code of conduct came into force immediately. The display of such advertisements at the cost of public exchequer constitutes a clear violation of the code," the commission said.

Pointing out that the campaign had nothing to do with the elections in some states, the government said, it was launched to encourage investment.

The campaign with "economic reforms" as the theme had been launched on September 9 as a part of programmes under the India Development initiative, it said. In continuation the second phase with "India shining" was launched on October 10, it added.

The Election Commission felt that the advertisements provided an "undue advantage" to the party in power and could "influence" voters, it said in a communication to the Cabinet secretary and the I&B secretary.

The Rs 48 lakh campaign was a brainchild of Finance Minister Jaswant Singh and the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) had only a marginal role in visualising and executing the campaign, government sources said.

Whether the advertising campaign would be put on foreign websites now or later, as per the original plan, is not known.