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India Today

Madras High Court restrains Tamil Nadu from naming schemes after MK Stalin

The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu government not to use the name of the Chief Minister or his photograph in publicity material related to government welfare schemes, pulling up the DMK administration over its choice of nomenclature for publicly funded court was hearing a petition filed by AIADMK MP CV Shanmugam, who sought a ban on the use of former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's image and the name 'Ungaludan Stalin' (translated as 'Stalin with You') in government schemes and their petitioner contended that naming the scheme after the incumbent Chief Minister was in violation of Supreme Court rulings and the Government Advertisement (Content Regulation) Guidelines, 2014. Citing schemes such as 'Ungaludan Stalin' and 'Nalam Kaakum Stalin Thittam', which carry the Chief Minister's name, the petition argued that such branding created undue political mileage at the expense of the public exchequer.'Mentioning the name of the incumbent Chief Minister in the nomenclature of the scheme and all such pictorial representations is in violation of various judicial pronouncements of the Hon'ble Supreme Court as also violative of Government Advertisement (Content Regulation) Guidelines, 2014,' the petition on behalf of the Tamil Nadu government, senior advocate and Rajya Sabha MP P Wilson termed the petition politically motivated and ill-founded, aimed at tarnishing the image of the ruling party and its questioned the selective targeting of the scheme's name, asking, 'When government schemes have been named after NaMo (a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi) and Amma (used for former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa), why can't there also be Ungaludan Stalin?'The High Court clarified that it was not issuing an order against the implementation of the schemes themselves but only objected to their nomenclature and promotional content that included names or images of living personalities. The court observed that government welfare initiatives funded by public money should remain politically neutral in presentation.- Ends IN THIS STORY#Tamil Nadu