On Wednesday morning, people in Delhi woke up to a rather unfamiliar face splashed across the national editions of English newspapers, it was Pinarayi Vijayan announcing that he was the next CM of Kerala, in an ad replete with the ‘God’s own country’ cliché and trademark Communist deep-red coloured background.
Almost all the major newspapers, including Hindustan Times, The Times of India, Economic Times and The Indian Express carried full front-page advertisements of Pinarayi Vijayan publicizing his swearing-in ceremony.
The ad tagline said, “Committed to turn Kerala in to a truly god’s own country.”
Though Kerala edition newspapers did not carry any such advertisement, television advertisements proclaiming his victory and publicizing his swearing-in ceremony has been appearing for the past few days.
There has been intense criticism online, such as the one below, on the ethicality of a Leftist party splurging money on newspaper ads.
This is a stark reminder of Arvind Kejriwal to the people of Delhi, the CM of the AAP government who had been criticized for his ad campaign on his day of swearing-in and his recent 'muffler-man' avatar to promote the odd-even scheme.
Defending the move, in an interview to NDTV, CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said that it is a "normal thing" for any new government which is about to form and replace the old one and he also pointed to Tamil Nadu.