Thiruvananthapuram: In Kerala, the state agriculture minister boycotted the Environment Day celebrations at Raj Bhavan, the official residence of the state governor, over a picture of Bharat Mata holding the saffron flag of the Hindutva organization RSS. The picture was placed at the stage where the celebrations were charted. Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar had demanded that floral tributes be paid to the picture, to which the minister P Prasad disagreed and demanded back that the picture be removed from the venue. The governor, in turn, rejected it, and the minister boycotted the event.
Later, the event, organized by the state agriculture department, was shifted to the Durbar Hall, but the minister stood in his decision not to attend.
The Agriculture Department informed that demand for paying floral tributes to the RSS’s picture could not be accepted in a government programme. Minister P Prasad responded to the media that Raj Bhavan did not use the commonly used picture of Mother India, and if it had, the state government wouldn’t have raised any objection. How can the picture of Mother India used by the RSS be used in a government program? The minister wondered. He called the governor’s demand unconstitutional.
CPI State Secretary Binoy Vishwam said that the picture is from the RSS platform. He asserted that Raj Bhavan would not be allowed to be turned into an RSS centre.