The slogan was popularised by the then-ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the 2004 Indian general elections.
The slogan is initially developed as a part of an Indian government campaign intended to promote India internationally.
[4][5][6] The negative assessment of the India Shining campaign was echoed after the election by former Deputy Prime Minister L.K.
Advani, who described it as "valid," but "inappropriate for our election campaign... By making them verbal icons of our election campaign, we gave our political opponents an opportunity to highlight other aspects of India's contemporary reality... which questioned our claim.
"[7][8] There has been controversy over the India Shining advertisements as whether the governments, States or Centre are not permitted to use taxpayer's money to promote any political gain.