Public money has been repeatedly deployed to publicise personal and political milestones of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. An examination of assembly replies RTI disclosures and official statements shows that state and central governments have spent substantial sums on advertisements events and outreach programmes timed to birthdays anniversaries of assuming office and years spent in public life.
In Gujarat, the state government spent ₹14.05 crore in nine days during Vikas Saptah held from 7 to 15 October 2025. The week marked twenty four years since Modi first took oath as chief minister of Gujarat in 2001. The figure was disclosed in an assembly reply to Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani. The previous year Gujarat spent ₹8.81 crore on advertisements alone to mark twenty three years of what the government described as successful and capable leadership. The state’s Information and Broadcasting Department which functions under the chief minister recorded total publicity expenditure of ₹108.80 crore in 2025 an average of nearly ₹30 lakh a day. During the 2022 assembly election year publicity spending rose sharply to ₹305.37 crore.
A similar pattern is visible at the national level and in other BJP ruled states. For September 2026, several state governments launched the month long Seva Sankalp Abhiyan running from 17 September to mid October to mark Modi’s twenty five years in public office. In Haryana, the government allocated ₹10 lakh to every deputy commissioner specifically to fund events under the campaign. In Uttar Pradesh, the state government announced a parallel drive to take the message of twenty five years of service to every section of society. Delhi scheduled inauguration and foundation stone ceremonies for projects valued at more than ₹13 800 crore during the same period.
Central government advertising has also been used for milestone related messaging. Between the financial years 2014 15 and 2024 25 the Modi government at the Centre spent ₹5 987 crore on advertisements. The Uttar Pradesh government under Yogi Adityanath spent ₹6 811.94 crore on advertising between 2017-18 and 2024-25. Uttarakhand’s advertising expenditure crossed ₹1 001 crore over a five year period. Separate campaigns have marked the hundredth episode of Mann Ki Baat, GST related events, and other numerical milestones in the prime minister’s tenure.
When the Gujarat government was asked in the assembly which public relations agencies received payment for the ₹14.05 crore Vikas Saptah drive, the official reply listed the number of paid agencies as zero. The absence of a clear public breakdown of how the money was distributed through departmental channels has left the expenditure difficult to scrutinise in detail.
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The scale of spending shows that celebration of a political leader’s personal and official anniversaries has become a regular item of government publicity budgets. Funds that appear under information and broadcasting or district event heads are used to organise weeks and months of advertising and programmes centred on one individual’s career timeline. The practice is no longer limited to election periods. It has become a standing feature of administrative calendars in several states and at the Centre..
