Mann Ki Baat expenditure
Mann Ki Baat, is an Indian radio programme hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It began in 2014 as an endeavor to connect with the masses through radio, and will shortly reach 100 episodes.
However, over the years many politicians have criticized the Modi govt in regard to the expenditure of Mann Ki Baat. Recently, Isudan Gadhvi, the Gujarat president of the AAP, on his Twitter account took jibe at the PM Modi hosted radio programme.
Moreover, he wrote, “One day cost of Mann Ki Baat is 8.3 crores say!” However, further he wrote, “830 crores of 100 episodes, our taxes were blown by talking nonsense! Now is the limit! BJP workers need to wake up and protest about this!”
Isudan Gadhvi claimed that the per episode cost is Rs 8.3 crore. As it’s going to complete 100 episodes on April 30,2023, so, the total cost of 100 episodes is 830 crore.
Did government really spent 830 crore behind the radio programme? Lets find the truth in our fact check.
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We began our research by conducting a keyword search for “Government spent 830 crore on Mann ki Baat radio programme.” With the keyword search, we came across a few media report. According to the DNA report a Mumbai based RTI activist, Anil Galgali, had filed an RTI request seeking how much money was invested in the radio show.
Furthermore, a keyword search for “Anil Galgali Mann Ki Baat RTI” led us to a tweet from him on April 26, 2020. He stated, “The amount spent on the PM’s one-day message to the nation has just cost us crores.”
Anil also provided a copy of the RTI response. In response to his RTI request, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting revealed that the Union government has spent Rs 8.3 crore on Mann Ki Baat marketing and publicity. A total of Rs 8.29 crore was spent on 14 stages of 4,094 advertisements published or broadcasted. Nowhere it was mentioned that the cost of per episode is Rs 8.3 crore.
In the following phase of our research, our team tried to determine how much profit was generated by Mann ki baat if Rs 8.3 crore was spent on it. Next, we performed the keyword search “Revenue generated from Mann Ki Baat” and found a report by many media outlets.
As per their reports, RTI activist Vivek Pandey filed an RTI request seeking to know the revenue generated by the Mann Ki Baat radio show. He received a response from the Office of the Additional Director General on Mann ki Baat’s yearly income produced from 2014 to October 2022.
According to data, the radio programme in the year 2014-15 earned Rs 1.16 crore, the next two years i.e. in the year 2015-16 it generated Rs 2.81 crore, moreover in the year 2016-17 and 2017-18 over Rs 5.14 crore and Rs 10.64 crore was generated. In 2018-19, it earned Rs 7.47 crore. However, in comparison to previous years, it generated less income during the Covid-19 period. Rs 2.56 crore in 2019-20, and Rs 1.02 crore in 2020-21.
Furthermore, using the same keyword search, we came across another RTI submitted by Vivek Pandey, who sought to know the expenditure on Mann Ki Baat in print media from 2014 through 2020. The RTI revealed that a total of Rs 7.29 crore was spent.
During the Covid period, when many nations economies and firms suffered, the yearly revenue earned by Mann Ki Baat fell. However, RTI has revealed that from 2018 to 2021, when Mann Ki Baat was generating less revenue, zero money was spent on its expenditure. Besides, it earned 7.49 crore in the fiscal year 2018-19, which is a good amount, despite not a single penny spent on its promotion.
Moreover, in the year 2019 to 2021, when no money was spent, the income generated did not go down to zero. So, as far as we can say, no losses were incurred because no money was spent on the expenditure.
Hence, the claim made by the AAP Gujarat president is Misleading. Moreover, ‘Mann Ki Baat’ has already made 33.16 crores in revenue since 2015, while spending only 8.3 crores on expenditure during the initial three years for advertisement and publicity.
Not only that, the Prime Minister in 2018 directed the officials not to spend money on programme promotion. Many politicians from the opposition have criticized Mann Ki Baat over its expenditure, but they failed to mention that it has earned 5 times more revenue.
| Claim | Mann Ki Baat expenditure is 830 crore |
| Claimed by | Isudan Gadhvi |
| Fact check | Misleading |
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