Singers Sukhwinder Singh and Kailash Kher were the leading acts of the performance in the Capital.
New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government may have to shell out more than Rs 80 lakh for just two singers — Sukhwinder Singh and Kailash Kher — who performed at the ‘Surgical Strikes Day’ celebrations on the lawns of New Delhi’s India Gate over the weekend.
The figure is a conservative estimate based on the fees that the two performers had quoted. The government is yet to release the full payments to them.
While Singh had quoted Rs 35.49 lakh for the event, Kher had quoted Rs 45.25 lakh. The amounts include charges for their team, travel, boarding, lodging as well as the creative agency fee.
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According to sources, the Bureau of Outreach Communication (BoC) — a body of media units under the Information and Broadcasting Ministry — had engaged PSU National Film Development Corporation of India to get the two singers on board for the event through the empanelled agency B4U Broadband India Pvt Ltd.
There was no response from the Information and Broadcasting ministry spokesperson for a request for comment from ThePrint until the time of publishing this report. The report will be updated when the ministry responds.
Other expenditure involved
Besides, the Modi government had also incurred other expenditure over the three-day-long celebrations held across 54 cities in the country. The exact amount, however, is still being ascertained.
Friday onwards, the government had organised country-wide exhibitions displaying weapons used by the Indian armed forces and those captured from enemy forces.
At the venues, huge screens were put up, which played interviews of Indian Army personnel involved in the 2016 surgical strikes operation. There were also digital screens for visitors to write messages, along with photos of martyrs and their contribution.
The ‘Parakram Parv’ celebrations are the first such of the 2016 cross-border strikes, in which special forces teams hit terror launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The strikes were not celebrated last year.
Lukewarm response in Delhi
The India Gate event, however, drew lukewarm response, with sparse footfall across the three days, despite heavy publicity by the Central government.
While the hot September afternoons saw a low turnout, the live performances in the evenings did see relatively better crowds. The event was covered by All India Radio and Doordarshan, while private radio channels were also engaged for coverage.
Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman took to private radio channels to urge people to attend the events. The official invite from the Press Information Bureau encouraged visitors to take selfies at the venue.
“We showed for the cowardly act of killing (that) India shall not sit and watch the whole thing. We proved to them (terrorists) that it (their acts) shall not go unpunished,” Sitharaman said while inaugurating the event Friday evening.
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The event had drawn criticism from across serving and retired officials of the armed forces, who said the forces were being politicised in the wake of the general elections next year.