New Delhi: A minimum of six welfare schemes are named after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, two after former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, and 29 are both named after former Tamil Nadu CM J. Jayalalithaa or marketed along with her {photograph}. These schemes, listed in an software filed by Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK, prompted the Supreme Court docket to rule within the state authorities’s favour Wednesday, giving the occasion a shot within the arm forward of subsequent 12 months’s meeting elections.

On the centre of the controversy was the implementation and publicity of the Tamil Nadu authorities’s ‘Ungaludan Stalin’ (With You, Stalin) scheme launched in July. AIADMK MP C.Ve. Shanmugam approached the Madras Excessive Court docket, objecting to the truth that the scheme was named after the incumbent chief minister, M.Ok. Stalin, and was being marketed with photos of the DMK’s occasion image. 

The DMK had approached the Supreme Court docket difficult the excessive courtroom order in an software filed on 5 August. It submitted nearly three dozen such examples, at each the central and state ranges, of presidency schemes named after political leaders, or their images getting used to promote schemes. 

They included the ‘NaMo Lakshmi Scheme’, the ‘NaMo Saraswati Yojana’, ‘NaMo E-tab’, ‘NaMo Lakshmi Scheme’, and ‘Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana’. The DMK argued that a number of of those union authorities schemes have been named after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political moniker ‘NaMo’. It additionally hooked up images of ‘Modi Ki Assure’ ads. 

In one other affidavit filed within the Madras Excessive Court docket on 3 August, the DMK mentioned that the AIADMK was in alliance with the BJP as part of the NDA, and that “the BJP Get together has spent a number of thousand crores on ads of Union Authorities schemes, significantly projecting the identify and images of the incumbent Prime Minister”.

“From Covid vaccination certificates to railway tickets, the images and identify of the incumbent PM are printed,” it mentioned. 

The affidavit added that the union authorities has launched a scheme referred to as ‘Bharatiya Jan Pariyojana’, which abbreviates to BJP. “This scheme’s colors are saffron and inexperienced, reflecting the colours of the ruling occasion,” it mentioned. 

‘Political battles’

In its software earlier than the Supreme Court docket, the DMK had additionally listed down varied schemes introduced by AIADMK throughout Jayalalithaa’s time within the identify of Amma, underneath varied authorities orders. 

They included ‘Amma Canteen’, ‘Amma Mineral Water Plant’, ‘Amma Child Care Equipment’, ‘Amma Cement Provide Scheme’, ‘Amma Seeds’, ‘Amma Name Centre’, ‘Amma Parks’, ‘Amma Bio-Fertilizers’, ‘Amma Salt’, and ‘Amma Laptop computer’.  

 The applying additionally listed the ‘Jagananna Vidya Deevena’ and ‘Jagananna Amma Vodi’ schemes, named after Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh.

The Supreme Court docket sided with the Tamil Nadu authorities on Wednesday and famous how frequent it’s for schemes to be floated within the identify of political occasion leaders.

“The naming of schemes within the identify of political leaders is a phenomenon which is adopted throughout the nation. When such schemes are floated within the identify of all leaders of political events, we don’t respect the anxiousness of the petitioner to decide on just one political occasion and one political chief,” the bench comprising Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai, Justice Ok. Vinod Chandran and Justice N.V. Anjaria noticed, whereas setting apart the Madras Excessive Court docket order. 

The Supreme Court docket famous that the lawmaker rushed to the HC inside three days of creating a illustration to the Election Fee of India (ECI), as a substitute of ready for a response and that he made sweeping, unsubstantiated allegations in opposition to the ECI, which, the SC mentioned, have been misconceived.

The apex courtroom reiterated that “political battles needs to be settled earlier than the electoral roll and courts shouldn’t be used for this”. It imposed prices of Rs 10 lakh on Shanmugam. 

‘At the price of public funds’

In his petition earlier than the excessive courtroom, Shanmugam had asserted that the most recent scheme, named after Stalin, was only a rebranding of the “Assured Most Service to Marginal Folks in All Villages” scheme launched by Tamil Nadu in 2013. 

“The current scheme Ungaludan Stalin is considerably an identical in construction and goal, and is certainly not a brand new scheme launched by the State authorities. At finest it’s a rebranding and renaming of an earlier scheme so as to painting a false image as if it’s the brainchild of the current Hon’ble Chief Minister, whose identify the scheme carries,” the petition asserted. 

He advised the excessive courtroom that renaming the scheme after a political determine in an election 12 months is “clearly an try to garner private publicity for a politician and his political occasion at the price of public funds”. 

Shanmugam asserted that this was a direct use of occasion insignia in state-funded publicity, which, it mentioned, was prohibited by means of judicial and electoral tips. 

The Madras Excessive Court docket handed an interim order on this petition on 31 July, observing, “Due to this fact, we’re inclined to go an interim order to the impact that whereas launching and working authorities welfare schemes by means of varied ads, the identify of any dwelling persona, {photograph} of any former Chief Minister/ideological leaders or occasion insignia/emblem/flag of respondent No.4 (DMK) scorridor not be included,” the excessive courtroom had ordered. 

(Edited by Sugita Katyal)

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