Photographs, Prime Minister and Paytm

The Wire‎‎‎: Ahmedabad: Monday, January 23, 2017.

While the president’s office has been quick to clamp down on any unauthorised usage of images, the prime minister’s office has stonewalled RTIs while refusing to take action against Reliance Jio or Paytm.

As post-demonetisation politics kicks in, and as a number of states head into assembly elections, symbols, images and pictures are dominating Indian headlines. While in Uttar Pradesh son fought father over which faction would get to use the party’s bicycle symbol, in Tamil Nadu protestors and the Supreme Court disagree over whether the bull represents the state’s future or the past.

Most recently, a calendar containing the pictures of prominent Indian leaders was the source of much controversy.

Where there is much less doubt, however, are in the offices of President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi; both of which present two different approaches to the misuse and misappropriation of photographs.

On Friday, the Ludhiana unit of the Congress Party reportedly put up election posters that featured the image of Mukherjee, who before becoming president was a senior Congress leader. The posters coincided with the visit of the president’s daughter, Sharmistha Mukherjee, who was in town to campaign for the party before the Punjab state elections.

Unfortunately, any usage of the president’s photograph is clearly against Election Commission regulations. Head of Congress in Ludhiana district, Gurpreet Gogi, quickly issued a statement saying that “they did not intend to use the name and photo of the president in the election campaign”. Instead, Gogi claimed, it was just a welcome poster for the president’s daughter and a way of honouring her.

Mukherjee’s office however clearly disagreed with Gogi. In a series of tweets put out on Saturday evening, the president sharply noted that his secretary, Omita Paul, had written to the Election Commission over this issue.

“Neither his [Pranab Mukherjee] photo nor anything related to him in capacity as president can or should be used for any political purposes,” one tweet said.