Browse Archives
By Category
By Date
My Friend Sancho
My first book, My Friend Sancho, was published in May 2009, and went on to become the biggest selling debut novel released that year in India. It is a contemporary love story set in Mumbai, and had earlier been longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2008. To learn more about the book, click here.
If you're interested, do join the Facebook group for My Friend Sancho
Click here for more about my publisher, Hachette India.
My posts on India Uncut about My Friend Sancho can be found here.
Recent entries
Check out this piece by Shikha Dalmia on the role that market forces play in perpetuating the caste system.…
Our right-wing lunatics are so funny sometimes that it’s hard to hate them. Balbir Punj has a bizarre (but…
Having resumed blogging, it was natural for me to head over to the ToI site for the potential double…
The Hindustan Times reports that two Karnataka ministers were caught watching pornographic videos “when the house was in session.”…
This personal essay by me appears in the winter edition of Forbes Life India. I feel the ground sway…
20 March, 2007
Where your taxes go: 18
Advertising campaigns for governments.
It’s quite possible that Amitabh Bachchan did the ads for UP for free, but my contention is that the government shouldn’t be wasting our tax money in producing and broadcasting advertisements for itself.
(Update: Reader Hemant brings my attention, via his comment below, to an Amitabh quote in the article in which he says that the ads were funded by the SP. If so, then this is clearly a wrong example, as your taxes may not be involved in this particular case. My bad, sorry! My larger point about government advertising, though, remains.)
A government should not need to advertise, its efficiency or inefficiency will be evident to all the people it governs. By all means, let a political party advertise its achievements with its own money, but to spend taxpayers’ money on it is a waste.
(Where your taxes go: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. Also see: 1, 2, 3.
My essays on taxes and government: Your maid funds Unani, A beast called government.)
Posted by Amit Varma in
Comments
No it doesn’t.
#2 Posted by blr bytes on Tue, March 20, 2007 at 4:25:10
Hemant, thanks, clearly my mistake, Amitabh is quoted as saying in the linked article as saying that SP funded the ad. If that is indeed the case, I have no complaints about this particular campaign,. My bad.
I’ll update the post accordingly now.
#3 Posted by Amit Varma on Tue, March 20, 2007 at 4:35:11
About the UNANI, I would like to point out that it not for “Study”
There are scores of hospitals in various states run by government. There are even Medical Colleges that are being run by the government
This amount is going to be spent on
1. Construction and maintenance of the hospital Buildings
2. Buying Drugs
3. Buying Other Items necessary to run a hospital
4. Salary
I hope that you get the picture now.
#4 Posted by Bruno on Wed, March 21, 2007 at 12:59:20
Bruno, yes, but they’re all alternative-medicine hospitals. If they’re profitable, the government does not need my taxes to be spent on it. If they’re not, that means there is little demand for it. It’s not an essential service that you can justify taxpayers’ money spent on it.
Of course, if you feel that all of those things are a worthy cause, then by all means fund them yourself with your money. Why demand that the hard-earned money of others be used for purposes you support?
Unani is off-topic for this post anyway. Feel free to email me if you wish to discuss it further.
#5 Posted by Amit Varma on Wed, March 21, 2007 at 1:13:36
gwmkirfo pirvkmgr http://hhkqgdxe.com fzpdjaeq lvsowivb ddjyieyz
#6 Posted by huxkythy on Thu, November 01, 2007 at 6:10:13
Actually, the article says that the ad was funded by Samajwadi Party.
#1 Posted by Hemant Kumar on Tue, March 20, 2007 at 3:55:33