Ad with Pak ex-air chief was ‘done by newspaper’

A day after the government was embarrassed by an advertisement carrying a picture of a former Pakistani air chief, no one was willing to own up to the goof-up. The ad, released by the women and child development (WCD) ministry on National Girl Child Day, carried pictures of cricketer Virender Sehwag, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and the prime minister apart from former Pakistani air chief Tanvir Ahmed, among others.

The WCD ministry, the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) and The Times of India, which carried the advertisement, tried to deflect the blame on the other. While WCD minister Krishna Tirath was tight-lipped on the issue pending an inquiry, a senior official said the advertisement was provided to the ministry by the newspaper which carried the special supplement.

“There was a proposal from the newspaper to carry a special supplement on National Girl Child Day. It was clear that the layout and the material were to be provided by the newspaper itself. The advertisements were part of the supplement. There are file notings with the ministry that say the design of the ad will be provided by the newspaper. Accordingly, the ad was prepared by the paper which came to the ministry for clearance. The minister, after looking at the ad, passed it on to the DAVP for clearance which eventually released the ad,” said the official. Interestingly, a letter written by WCD official MR Mohanty and addressed to NV Reddy, director, DAVP, on January 21, 2010, read: “The minister of state (independent charge), WCD, has desired that four half-page (colour) special feature in The Times of India, Delhi edition, is to be released on 24/1/10. The text/design of the proposed feature is being finalised by the TOI group in consultation with MoS (independent charge), WCD.”

A day later (January 22), Mohanty wrote again to DAVP saying: “As informed earlier…the text/design has been approved by MoS (independent charge), WCD. Kindly, facilitate the release of same on 24/1/10. Letter of approval will be issued shortly.”

The minister who went through the ad personally did not find anything amiss, neither did any of her officials.

The newspaper denied it had made the ad. “We did send a proposal for the supplement but we got the ad material from the DAVP. It is wrong to say we prepared the ad. We do not prepare ads. There is no truth in it. This ad was released by DAVP and we had downloaded it from their website,” said Gautam Sen, general manager, Response, of The Times of India, Delhi.

DAVP has washed its hands of the goof-up saying the ad, its content and concept came from the ministry.  DAVP and WCD argue that the government had not made any payment for the layout to any agency. This made it clear that the ad wasn’t prepared by either of them. Officials in the information and broadcasting ministry refused to comment on the matter.