SOUTH
Chief Minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah, and Higher Education Minister Basavaraja Rayareddi stirred up a controversy while celebrating the 154th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. To mark this occasion, the state government distributed T-shirts among student that featured a picture of Swami Vivekananda.
What led to the controversy is the fact that these T-shirts also featured pictures of the CM and the Higher Education Minister. Some of the college principals, teacher as well as students, questioned the need for printing the photos of the current politicians and opposed to wearing the T-shirts.
In fact, this is a trend with contemporary politicians to feature themselves along with some of the most iconic figures of India on public platforms. In a similar incident, recently, PM Modi was also caught in a similar controversy over replacing Mahatma Gandhi in Khadi Udyog’s calendar.
However, the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that the image was used without permission and that the PM is ‘upset’ over this incident.
In India, it is a general practice that every time any political party organises any event honouring or celebrating the life or work of some historic personality, the banner or merchandise not only features the personality but also has a picture of the current leader of the political party. The need of this is yet to be questioned by the people and answered by the politicians.
Firstly, the purpose of such programme or event is to celebrate the life or work of an eminent personality irrespective of their political affiliation, therefore featuring the face of any current politician is not required.
Secondly, it dilutes the whole purpose of such programme and distracts people from the original motive behind organising the event. For example, the recent case of Karnataka distracted the organisers as well as the attendees from the original purpose of the event, and the controversy took the forefront.
Thirdly, for the organising political party also such act does not serve any purpose. What exactly is the reason to do this and what the political party wants to gain out of it? The attendees are aware of the organisers and gather to celebrate an iconic personality, so what purpose could this act of featuring the face of a contemporary leader serve?