On 16th Jan, Congress shared a video on social media to highlight the marketing gimmicks by PM Modi. The video was made in the wake of PM Modi winning the First-Ever' Philip Kotler Presidential Award.

The official page of Congress shared the video with a caption "From one marketeer to another, NoMo's much-deserved award. We bring to you the top five marketing gimmicks by Modi govt". You can watch the video here:

Claim 1: Rs 5000 crores on advertisement

The first claim they have made in the video is that the Modi government has spent 5000 crores in the advertisement. The claim is somewhat true as Modi govt had spent 4,300 crores on advertisements till between May 2014- May 2018 as reported by NDTV. 

Claim 2: Two crore jobs every year

The second claim is that PM Modi had promised 2 crore jobs per year. But this claim is false as PM Modi had never promised to give 2 crore jobs to youth every year. The Viral Sach team of ABP News had found this claim to be wrong. You can watch their report here:

Notably, on 21 November 2013, PM Modi had said in his speech in a rally in Agra that during Loksabha election, Congress had promised to give 1 crore jobs every year. This statement was twisted by the opposition and some section of media to show as if PM Modi has promised to give 1/2 crore jobs every year to the youth of this country.

There is a report dated Nov 22, 2013, by the Economic Times which says BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi promised to provide one crore jobs to the youth of the country if voted to power at the Centre. But this report is clearly not correct since PM Modi was only talking about Congress' promise of providing one crore jobs. He never made any promise about giving 1 crore or 2 crores jobs.

Claim 3: 1.1 crore jobs were lost in last year (2018)

The claims seem to be true. A recent report published by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) revealed that 1.1 crore jobs were lost in the year 2018. The report exhibited that the unemployment rates have sharply inclined which rose up to 7.4 % in December 2018. This is the highest unemployment rate in 15 months.

However, CMIE has clarified about the margin of error in the data:

Nevertheless, a word of caution is in order here. First, the employment / unemployment statistics for September through December 2018 are preliminary. Final estimates would be released by the end of January 2019. Second, much of the discussion that follows is based on monthly estimates which are based on a sample of about 140,000 respondents. These will contain a margin of error that can be reduced in a discussion that is based on the full sample of a Wave, which is of the order of 550,000. We would do this in February 2019.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal said that the available data are not inclusive and does not cover many sectors and many new age industries like taxi aggregators who are reportedly engaging a million people today.

Claim 4: Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao

Congress tried to undermine the effect of Beti Bachao, Beto Padhao scheme by highlighting that UP CM Yogi Adityanath tried to protect the MLA who was accused of rape in Unnao case. Not only that the girl in the video called PM Modi a misogynist. We will not go into details but we must highlight that BJP's MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was arrested on 14th April 2018.

Is Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao a marketing gimmick?

The sex ratio at birth (SRB) in Haryana rose to 914 girls for 1,000 boys last year. In 2015 the SRB was 871 girls for 1000 boys and in 2016, it was 900 girls for 1000 boys. In 2011, the state had registered the worst sex ratio in the country at 834 girls per 1000 boys. 

Haryana has witnessed a remarkable increase of 80 points in sex ratio at birth since 2011, with nine districts improving the SRB by 100 or more points as reported by The Economic Times.

The officials said after the launch of the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padho' campaign, the government had embarked upon a multi-pronged drive to rectify the skewed sex ratio in Haryana. 

Seeing the ground effect of the campaign, we can't really call this scheme a marketing gimmick.

Claim 5: Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana

The video claims that even though the prime minister has claimed that the scheme has changed the lives of 3 crores women in the country, the consumption rate of LPG has increased only by 0.8%. This claim is completely false. An article by Scroll media highlights that the number of LPG connections across India has increased by an impressive 16.26% and the use of gas cylinders increased by only 9.83% since the scheme was launched.

Indian Oil has given several reasons why the consumption rate has not seen a steep incline. While responding to Scroll media Indian oil said:

There is no direct co-relation between the number of connections and the numbers of gas cylinders consumed. The refill consumed by each household is different and varies based on their cooking patterns. In the past four years, the implementation of Direct Benefit Transfer of LPG has weeded out fake connections, thereby controlling the diversion of domestic refill into the commercial sector. The urban consumer is also shifting to alternate cooking methods – piped natural gas, electric cook stoves, microwaves and the like – for cooking purpose and hence, the LPG consumption per household has not increased exponentially.

Under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, the government recently gave out the 6-croreth free cooking gas (LPG) connection as reported by the financial express.

However, we couldn't find any report to substantiate the claim that 75% of the LPG connections are inactive. In fact, the Central Government has started subsidy on 5 Kg Cylinders under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana which will reduce the one time cost of refill. Ref: pradhanmantriujjwalayojana.in

Earlier most of the beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana were unable to refill their Gas Cylinders due to high rates of Gas Cylinders and other financial problems. In such case, the existence of Ujjwala Yojana was in crisis as the main motive of launching this scheme was to provide Gas Connection to poor women of the country. Therefore, to get rid of this problem, the government decided to provide 5 Kg Gas Cylinders along with 140 Rupees Subsidy. Now, they do not need to buy 14 Kg Gas Cylinder.

Claim 6: PM Modi had promised to deposit Rs 15 lakh in the bank account of every citizen

PM Modi never promised to deposit Rs 15 lakh in citizens' account. In his speech, the said amount is a reference to the quantum of black money stashed overseas and not a promise to credit every account with 15 lakh rupees. You can watch this video to see how his statement was manipulated by opposition parties.

There is also no mention of the ‘Rs 15 lakh-in-each-account’ promise in the 2014 election manifesto of BJP as well.

Hence, Congress claim is completely baseless.