Here's why the cover page of Kerala budget document had Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination image
New Delhi, Feb 07: The Pinarayi Vijayan-led Kerala government on Friday has come under the spotlight as they released official budget document for the year 2020-21 on Friday. The cover page had carried the painting of 'Death of Gandhi' which was done by the artist Tom Vattakuzhy.
Speaking to news agency ANI, Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac justified that he wanted to make a political statement by choosing such a controversial image. "It is a painting by a Malayalam artist of Mahatma Gandhi's murder scene. We are sending out a message that we will not forget who murdered Gandhi," he added.
"This is important at the times when history is being re-written. There is an attempt to erase some popular memories and use the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to divide the population on communal lines. Kerala will stand united," Isaac asserted.
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Meanwhile, Congress leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala said,''Even though we are all fighting against the RSS and BJP, the budget cover should have been avoided. We are all fighting against the Hindu communal forces and we are all fighting against the BJP and Sangh Pariwar. But this image on the Budget cover, I don't think this is an appropriate gesture."
The BJP too slammed the Kerala government and said that it was done to divert the attention of the people from the sagging state of the economy.
NRC is an official record of those people who are legal citizens of India. The dossier includes demographic information about all those individuals who qualify as citizens of India as per the Citizenship Act, 1955.
The register was first prepared after the 1951 Census of India and since then it has not been updated until recently.