: Putting to rest allegations being raised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against the Harish Rawat-led State government over the payment of ₹47.19 lakh to the captain of the Indian cricket team Virat Kohli, allegedly from funds meant for disaster-related works, Chief Minister Rawat on Saturday said that the BJP was “unnecessarily” trying to “rake-up” the issue.
In a reply to the Right to Information (RTI) application filed by one Ajendra Ajay, who is associated with the BJP, it was found that a payment of ₹47.19 lakh was made to Mr. Kohli by the Rudraprayag District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) for his 60-second television commercial promoting Uttarakhand Tourism, of which Mr. Kohli is the brand ambassador.
In the year 2013, a massive disaster hit Uttarakhand and the several areas, especially those along the Char Dham routes, including Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri, witnessed loss of lives and property. In the 60-second advertisement, Mr. Kohli is seen promoting Uttarakhand Tourism with the message that the State is safe for travel.
Ads versus relief
Mr. Ajay had alleged that the State government, which always “begged” the Central government for funds to carry out works related to relief and rehabilitation in disaster-affected areas, had spent “a huge amount” of money on advertisements, while the money “should have been used for reconstruction and rehabilitation works”.
On Saturday, Mr. Rawat said, “The BJP must say whether it is wrong to advertise that Kedarnath is safe for travel and whether Virat Kohli is the wrong person to propagate that.”
While Mr. Ajay said that he would ask for an enquiry into this issue since “it is misuse of funds meant for disaster-related works”, Mr. Rawat said that while the BJP had paid actress Hema Malini in crores for the BJP’s ‘Sparsh Ganga’ campaign and while the Gujarat government had “splurged” money on actor Amitabh Bachchan for the ‘Khushboo Gujarat Ki’ campaign , the party had no right to question the Congress government over spending “a few lakhs” for an advertisement promoting Uttarakhand Tourism.
