Today, September 17, 2025, the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, has attained the age of 75. I personally congratulate Mr. Modi on this day and wish him all the best and good health.

But I’m dismayed at the way his birthday bashing is going on. The newspapers and TV channels have gone grandiose in celebrating his birthday. While the BJP has every right to celebrate its most important leader, the overreaction from the mainstream TV media on Mr. Modi’s birthday and the full-page advertisements in India’s leading newspapers highlighting the Prime Minister’s birthday show the extent of the prostration of the Indian media.

There are a few questions that arise:

The first question is: if this money for the advertisements is being spent by the government department, that is, DAVP (The Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity) or the Central Bureau of Communication, which comes under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, then the question arises: is this not an utter waste of taxpayers’ money on such a grand celebration? And why is there a need for lavish celebrations at the cost of taxpayers’ money?

The second question is: if these celebrations are being funded by the BJP, then someone may say, what is the problem? But there’s an actual problem here. Political parties in India largely run on black money (you may recall the scrapping of electoral bonds by the Supreme Court, which went to the extent of calling these bonds unconstitutional). Because in India, political funding is largely opaque and unaccountable, the public needs to know the source of this funding and how much money has been spent by the BJP organization on Mr. Modi’s birthday bonanza!

And then, there is also the question of moral and ethical concerns. In a developing country like India, where poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, disease, and poor infrastructure persist—open sewage, garbage, broken roads, and lack of quality education and healthcare being daily struggles—such grand celebrations feel out of place and discomforting. In fact, they create a sense of injustice and even repulsion in the minds of right-thinking people. And that too by a party, the BJP, which takes pride in the principle of चाल, चरित्र, and चेहरा (conduct, character, and face).

I am reiterating this again: India is in desperate need of electoral and political reforms. Politicians and leaders are not supposed to be worshipped; they need to be held accountable for their work. While the media has lost its backbone, it is now the duty of sovereign citizens like us to put an end to this prostration and strengthen the axis of accountability and transparency, lest we are in danger of becoming a banana republic. [VP]

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