Jaipur Literature Festival not aligned to Rajasthan tourism strategy: Vishvendra Singh

JAIPUR: Even as chief minister Ashok Gehlot was inaugurating the JLF on Thursday and heaping praises on the event, his cabinet colleague and tourism minister Vishvendra Singh tweeted saying that the festival is not aligned with the marketing strategy of Rajasthan tourism department. The minster had also reportedly recommended cancelling the tourism department’s sponsorship for the event.
Reacting to news reports that the tourism minister had skipped the inauguration after being annoyed with JLF organisers, Singh tweeted, “There is no anger.Just that I don’t think the festival is aligned with our marketing strategy for Jaipur or Rajasthan for that matter. The synergy was not enough for me to spare the marketing revenue they wanted.”
The tweet came immediately after Gehlot had showered praises on JLF during his inaugural address. Gehlot said, “JLF is the pride of Rajasthan, it has carved a place for itself in the world. Everyone is in awe of it. I hope the festival will inspire the new generation. It is being talked about across the world. All the literary people discuss this festival, they feel at JLF they will get a chance to say their ‘mann ki baat' as well as ‘kaam ki baat'.”
The tourism department had approved Rs 30 lakh for the event as it commands a global audience.
Officials in the tourism department said the sponsorship deal with the organizers could not be scrapped. “Much of the promised deliverables have been made and it cannot be rolled back,” said an official.
Interestingly, the tourism minister is scheduled to speak at the event on January 27 on the session ‘Secrets of Amber by Rashmi Dickinson’.
Later in the day, in a press release, Sanjay Roy, managing director of Teamworks that organises the event, said, “We are looking forward to welcoming the honourable tourism minister, Shri Vishvendra Singh Bharatpur, when he joins us in a session on responsible and sustainable tourism.”
Singh has been in news for tussles with the bureaucrats of his department. A controversy also came to the fore after the minister wrote to the tourism principal secretary for cancelling a light and sound show project for which the Centre had released Rs 45 crore.