Remember when the Supreme Court of India expressed its “shock” on discovering that the National Informatics Centre (NIC)’s e-governance spearhead had added a photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his “sabka saath” slogan, to all the court’s outgoing emails? The story created ripples after it was reported by The Telegraph, and others last week. Chief Justice N.V. Ramana, who is also the top court’s administrative head, had then asked that the photo and the slogan be removed immediately.
However, that was a week ago and some officials at the NIC must have thought people had forgotten about the ‘blooper’. However now it is a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) official who discovered that the NHRC’s outgoing emails were also carrying a photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the “sabka saath” slogan, reported the Telegraph.
This comes after the SC rapped the National Informatics Centre on the knuckles. Moreover, in the case of the Human Rights commission, as with the Apex Court, it can be read as an “interference”, as the photo and slogans reportedly were appended to the emails without the “knowledge or permission” of the users. The Telegraph reported that an NHRC official said the commission “had been clueless about the matter,” as “only the receivers of the mails and not their writers could see the footer with Modi’s picture and the slogan. Apex court sources had earlier made a similar point.”
The NHRC official told the TT journalist that the matter will be taken up with the chairperson, Justice Arun Mishra. “We had no idea that our forum was being used for such purposes by the NIC (which operates under the ministry of electronics and information technology). Our website and digital networks are handled by the NIC as a facilitator,” the unnamed NHRC official was quoted as saying by the TT who noticed the anomaly when they received the “media release emailed by Jaimini Kumar Srivastava, NHRC deputy director (media and communications),” he said. The email had Modi’s picture and the slogan “Sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas, sabka prayas (Together with all, development of all, trust of all and effort by all),” stated the news report.
Even the carousel on the homepage of the NHRC’s official website has a photo of the Prime Minister, but the slogan, “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav”, which promotes the official celebrations for the 75th anniversary of Independence.
The NHRC official told the TT that “central and state governments were the biggest litigants before the rights watchdog, which took up thousands of cases relating to human rights violations by the government and its instrumentalities every year” adding that “using the NHRC portals to pedal government policies or its political personalities is certainly not acceptable.”
What did the SC say about the photo add-on?
On September 23, the Supreme Court registry was alerted that its outgoing emails were being appended with Modi’s photo and the “sabka saath” slogan, reported TT. On September 24, Chief Justice N.V. Ramana, directed the footer be removed immediately and reportedly “senior officials were pulled up.” The central government was the biggest litigant before the top court, stated the news report. The image was removed from SC’s email soon after the order.
Mid Day meals now renamed ‘PM Poshan Scheme’
In the ongoing publicity overdrive that seems to be underway with the excessive use of PM Narendra Modi’s photos on all things including Covid-19 vaccine certificates, the government on Wednesday has renamed the school Mid Day Meal Scheme as “PM Poshan Scheme”
Now this ‘branding’ can also be seen as an attempt to credit the Prime Minister for a programme that has been going on for a long time. According to news reports, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) cleared the PM POSHAN Scheme “for providing one hot cooked meal in government and government-aided schools from 2021-22 to 2025-26.” A release stating this was issued by the Press Information Bureau (PIB).
Media reports quoted economist Jean Dreze who said, “It’s mind-boggling to see the Prime Minister trying to take credit for a scheme he had undermined with massive budget cuts soon after he came to power in 2014. To this day, the midday meal budget is much lower in real terms than it was seven years ago.” In 2020-21, the government had to release Rs 12,883 crore with the pandemic-induced school closure forcing dry rations and money to be sent to families of all students covered under the scheme. The 2021-22 budget proposal for the scheme is Rs 11,500 crore, reported the Telegraph and others.
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