It’s birthday season for the prime minister again. PM Narendra Modi turns a year older today, and right on cue, his government, an assortment of BJP-run states, and the party itself are gearing up to stretch the celebrations into a full month of inaugurations, foundation-stone ceremonies and publicity blitzes.

In Delhi, the state government and BJP plan to roll out the “Seva Sankalp Abhiyan – Jan Seva Hi Prabhu Seva Hai” programme, running from September 17 all the way to October 18, with this year’s milestone also conveniently lining up with roughly 25 years since Modi first became Gujarat’s chief minister. Meanwhile, the Haryana government has allocated Rs 10 lakh to every Deputy Commissioner in the state for the Seva Sankalp Abhiyan.

Gujarat, as it turns out, has its own precedent. For a nine-day “Vikas Saptah” event last October marking 24 years since Modi first took charge as CM, the state government spent Rs 14.05 crore, according to an assembly reply to Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani. The year before that, to mark 23 years of what the government itself branded “successful and capable leadership,” Gujarat spent Rs 8.81 crore on advertisements alone, per figures given to the BBC under the RTI Act. 

According to the Gujarat Chief Minister’s Office website, the state observes ‘Vikas Saptah’ every year from October 7 to 15, timed to Modi’s 2001 oath-taking as chief minister. The government has described it as an occasion to highlight the state’s development journey and governance, with programmes, inaugurations, foundation-laying ceremonies and publicity of government schemes filling out the period.

There is precedent nationally too. There was the “GST........

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