The week Narendra Modi government completed two years in office, it became the top advertiser on TV beating huge multinational brands such as Lifebuoy, Ptanjali, Lakme, Dettol and Fair & Lovely.

The data released by Broadcast Audience Research Council of India for the week (28 May to 3 June) said that with 26,236 insertions, Modi government was the top advertiser on TV. Patanjali, which is owned by Modi’s friend, Baba Ramdev, was pushed to third.

Given that most of the ads, highlighting the PM Modi’s achievements in the first two years in office, were comparatively longer than the usual 20-30 seconds duration, the overall airtime bought by the Indian government would have been considerably higher than what BARC recorded.

This was in addition to the newspaper space and radio slots government bought to push what it called its achievements in the first two year.

The government had also come under severe criticism for spending hundreds of crores of rupees on hosting the two years gala by hiring the services of several Bollywood artists.