The latest advertisement of the AAP government’s targeting the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hit an unexpected roadblock its Directorate of Information and Publicity has raised objections, citing it “violates” Supreme Court guidelines about the content of government ads.

The Indian Express reported, the advertisement was aimed at highlighting a letter Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had recently shot off to the PM, accusing the central government’s I-T department of harassing small businessmen.

A senior official of the department, in his communication on the issue, has “strongly advised” the AAP government not to go forward with the advertisement as it “violated” the top court’s guidelines.

According to the official, they pointed out that the advertisement was “making allegations against the Prime Minister” and “it would not be appropriate to make allegations against the PM in a government advertisement.”

The publicity department said citing Supreme Court guidelines, that, “display material” in government advertisements had to be “free of political or partisan argument” and had to “maintain political neutrality”, without directly attacking the views and actions of the opposition.

It would be “inappropriate” to comment on political promises in a government advertisement, the publicity department observed and said, as the purpose of the advertisement was “political” it was based on an official communication to the PM issuing such an advertisement at the expense of the public exchequer, to make the letter public, was “un-warranted”.

The advertisement was sent by the office of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who is also in charge of the government’s publicity department. The communication stated that, “SC guidelines prescribe that heads of government departments and agencies shall be responsible for ensuring compliance with these guidelines and shall follow a procedure of certification of compliance before advertisements are released to the media. The present advertisement is not owned by any HOD and hence it is not known who is responsible for ensuring compliance of the guidelines.”

Nandini