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Kerala Finance Minister On Budget Cover: 'We Will Not Forget Who Murdered Gandhi'

Kerala's finance minister Thomas Isaac began the budget presentation with anti-CAA remarks.
'Death Of Gandhi'
Tom Vattakuzhy
'Death Of Gandhi'

Kerala’s finance minister Thomas Isaac defended using a painting of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination on the cover of the state’s budget which was presented in the assembly on Friday.

Isaac confirmed it was a political statement and said the Kerala government was “sending out a message.”

“Definitely, it is a political statement, the cover of my budget speech. 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 told ANI.

“This is important at the times when history is being re-written. There is an attempt to erase some popular memories and use NRC to divide the population on communal lines. Kerala will stand united,” he said.

Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala reportedly called the gesture inappropriate. “We are all fighting against communal forces, but the Budget cover should have been avoided” MoneyControl quoted him as saying.

Deputy Opposition leader MK Muneer said: “What is the relation between the Budget and the assassination? Mahatma Gandhi should not be used for political purposes.”

The painting titled ‘Death of Gandhi’ is by Tom Vattakuzhy and was recently shared on social media by Rahul Gandhi and Kanhaiya Kumar on Gandhi’s death anniversary.

Vattakuzhy had lamented the political leaders sharing his painting without credit.

On the painting, he told Times of India, ”... when our horizons of freedom are at stake, when our historic past is at stake, I wanted this painting as an indelible poignant memoir to be etched into the soul of every Indian and keep reminding us always of how our father of the nation died or rather assassinated.”

“So far, artists have romanticised and personalised Gandhiji. At a time when history is at stake, I felt it was important to tell moments through the genre ‘history painting’,” he told the daily on Friday.

When Isaac presented the fifth budget of the CPI(M)-led LDF government in the assembly on Friday, he began by making remarks against the Citizenship Amendment Act and on the unanimous resolution passed by the state assembly against it.

Stating the amended act was posing a threat to the basic credentials of the Constitution, he said the country was witnessing the biggest protests ever in the post-Independence era.

Students and women are at the forefront of the anti- CAA agitations and the hope of the country lies in the youth who hit the streets vowing they would not let the country down, he said.

Coming down heavily on the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, Isaac said a communalised government machinery, leaders who talk only about “disgust and hatred” and their party workers who consider violence as their duty was the current reality in the country.

Quoting from a poem ‘Fear’ by a 15-year old boy from Wayanad Dhruvath Gautham who wrote ‘fear is country and silence is an ornament!,’ Isaac said “even the imagination of our children is now filled with fear”.

Referring to the stringent opposition raised by the Left government in the state against the CAA and NRC, the finance minister lavished praise on the joint protests led by the ruling LDF and opposition UDF against the Act.

Setting aside political differences, the rival fronts in the state had joined hands to protest when the country had faced existential threat which had become a model for other states, he said.

Kerala’s chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had also on Friday released a statement countering Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comments in the Parliament a day earlier, calling it “factually incorrect” and “condemnable”.

While claiming opposition parties were attempting to “misguide and misinform” the country on the new citizenship law, Modi had said Vijayan was warning people about extremist elements infiltrating anti-CAA protests while his party was supporting them in Delhi.

(With PTI inputs)

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.