Thiruvananthapuram: A controversy broke out on Thursday after Kerala Agriculture Minister P. Prasad boycotted the state-level celebrations on World Environment Day at the Raj Bhavan — the official residence of the state Governor, Rajendra V. Arlekar.
The reason was that the Minister did not want the picture of the Bharat Mata, commonly used by the RSS, to be placed on the central dais.
Prasad told the media that the programme was decided after speaking to the Governor. “Last night, a change was made, and this was not acceptable to the state government. The picture was not the regular Bharat Mata picture which we use, but at Raj Bhavan, it was the one that is used by the RSS. It is not right to keep such pictures, and the Governor said it cannot be changed, and hence the state government decided not to take part in the function at the Raj Bhavan,” said Prasad.
“This is an unconstitutional thing. It is only after this Governor took over that there have been such changes. We have the highest regard and respect towards the normal Bharat Mata picture, but not the one used by the RSS,” added Prasad.
Incidentally, on Tuesday evening, officials from the concerned Minister’s office were at the Raj Bhavan for an inspection of the Central Hall where the picture of Bharat Mata was kept.
Later, the officials who visited the Raj Bhavan informed the Minister about the picture. Following this, the Minister spoke to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, and later, the decision was taken that Prasad would not attend the meeting.
The Minister called Raj Bhavan and informed that he would not be able to attend the function if the picture was not removed. But Arlekar stood his ground and pointed out that the picture would not be removed. Afterwards, the state government decided to hold a function in the Durbar Hall of the State Secretariat to mark the World Environment Day celebrations.
The Chief Secretary was directed to organise a separate event. Consequent to this, on Thursday, there were two different state-level functions — one chaired by Arlekar at the Raj Bhavan and the other in the Durbar Hall with Prasad presiding over.
Prasad, a first-time legislator, is a member of the CPI.
Former Minister and CPI state secretary Binoy Viswan said this was unacceptable, as that picture could not be put up at a state function.
Incidentally, last month, Arlekar had invited prominent RSS ideologue S. Gurumurthy for a talk after the successful Operation Sindoor, and CM Vijayan had said that it was wrong to convert the Raj Bhavan into a place for the RSS.
(IANS)
