The BJP MLA (opposition party), Congress, and the opposition Leader in the Delhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta are questioning the officials of the AAP government, including Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia about a private public relations agency being hired by them when they already have a lot of PR people on the payroll.
Outcry from Public Leaders in India for Wasting Money
Gupta said, “18 months after the historic win, the Kejriwal government requires a PR agency and is spending crores to improve its image. The government hired a private PR agency despite having an army of media advisors, own advertising agency — Shabdarth and Directorate Information and Publicity. It is wastage of hard earned public money.”
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s initial response to claims in the media about hiring the outside PR agency and spending Rs 200 crore, was to point out that “Hiring a PR agency to publicize government’s works is not a crime. Let the Lt Governor order a probe into the matter.”
Still, BJP and Congress continued to point out that the government was wasting public money for what was essentially an image makeover. The president of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC), Ajay Maken, took to Twitter proclaiming, “Instead of Spending on Public Welfare-AAP Government spends Tax-Payers money for Professional help to build image! [sic]”
The PR firm being discussed is Perfect Relations and was hired by the AAP government to act as a media consultant.
Perfect Relations was founded in 1992, and they have 18 wholly-owned offices in southern Asia as well as 80 stringer relationships in 80 cities across 25 states in India and other areas. Their network is multi-lingual and cross-cultural, and their specialists can handle just about any need a client might bring them. It is the only Indian member of the Public Relations Global Network (PRGN), which includes 45 independent PR firms, including Lewis Public Relations in the United States.
Perfect Relations Clientele
Some of their clients include Pizza Hut, Coca-Cola, Minute Maid, Hot Wheels, and HyperCity. They’ve been honored by the Holmes Report Sabre Awards Asia Pacific with India Consultancy of the Year 2013, India PR and Corporate Communications Awards for 2013’s Best Integrated Campaign Award (Mediker’s Journey from lice negative to life positive), and Unior’s 2013 Crisis Management Award – Navigating the world’s 7th largest mobile operator through a $35 billion crisis.