Kerala Budget cover stirs row
The CPM led Left Front Government in Kerala utilised the budget speech on Friday to launch a scathing attack on the Citizenship Amendment Act. The cover picture of the budget speech featuring the painting of Mahatma Gandhi’s also triggered a controversy.
The Left Government defended the picture saying it was to remind the people that Hindu communalists were behind the gruesome murder.
Reading out the budget speech Finance Minister Thomas Isaac painted a grim picture of the country. “Democracy and dictatorship are standing face to face in India. The rulers in Delhi speak only in the language of hatred and rancour. The administrative set up has completely yielded to communalism,” he alleged. Isaac said the threat of detention camps is hanging over 19 lakh Assamese. In this backdrop, the unity shown by the ruling and opposition parties in Kerala in fighting against CAA, was a model for the rest of the country. The CM and Opposition leader sitting in Satyagraha against CAA on the same platform, passing of unanimous resolution against CAA and filing of suit in Supreme Court against CAA sent out a powerful message to the whole country.
The Congress led opposition expressed reservations about the use of Mahatma Gandhi assassination picture on the cover of budget speech. Opposition leader Mr
Ramesh Chennithala said it was not appropriate to use the picture on budget speech.
The BJP on the other hand said the Left government was using such tactics to divert the attention of people from its failure on all fronts. The finance minister, however, defended the decision to use Mahatma Gandhi assassination picture saying that it reminded the people about the act of Hindu communalists.