Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is a regular on Delhi’s radio networks where he routinely issues statements on his government’s schemes and plans. It’s how he often seeks support for government schemes and explains the idea behind them, and at times uses it to target political opponents.
But days into his government’s odd-even scheme to control the number of cars on Delhi’s roads, there’s a television ad in which Kejriwal is seen but looking like this:
At no point does the Chief Minister turn to face the camera and he is heard talking about the merits of the scheme and seeking people’s support. Not surprisingly, this has prompted questions like:
But it also was a clever attempt by the Delhi Chief Minister to go around the Supreme Court order which says that no state government advertisements can show the face of the Chief Minister. So instead we have the muffler and a phone to imply that Kejriwal is talking directly to a viewer.
Kejriwal may have managed to go around the Supreme Court’s order but the advertisement is still pretty weird with a viewer having to listen to a scheme that is not applicable anywhere else in the country. For those living in the national capital, they already have to follow the rule or risk being fined by police officials. It’s a pretty weird way to go about defending a scheme that many of Delhi’s residents are voluntarily following.
The Delhi Chief Minister has always gone on the offensive to defend any scheme that his government has come up with. But in this case, this option might not have been necessary.