Saffron flag-holding Bharath Matha motif at an official function emerges as a sore point between government and Raj Bhavan

Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar planting saplings of five different trees on the Raj Bhavan premises on World Environment Day on Thursday .

Partisan politics appeared to have crept into the Kerala government’s World Environment Day celebrations at Raj Bhavan on Thursday, with Agriculture Minister P. Prasad controversially skipping the event at the last minute, citing constitutional and political reasons.

The picture of a saffron flag-holding Bharat Matha astride a lion at Raj Bhavan’s central hall, where the event was scheduled to be held, emerged as a sore point between the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government and the Governor’s office at the eleventh hour.

Mr. Prasad justified his decision by stating that the picture, unlike the tri-colour, was not a national symbol.

“It is a motif used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to promote its Hindu deification of the secular Mother India concept inspired by the Independence movement. The LDF could not constitutionally abide by Raj Bhavan’s insistence that the administration hold the event against the backdrop of the RSS’s political device,” he said.

Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar took strong exception to the government’s stance. “We cannot do away with a national symbol we are living for,” he said later at a private function. Mr. Arlerkar observed the day by planting a fruit tree on the grounds of Raj Bhavan.

The LDF administration shifted the function to the historic Durbar Hall in the government Secretariat. Mr. Prasad marked the occasion by planting a sapling.

CPI(M)] State secretary M.V. Govindan stated that Raj Bhavan was constitutionally bound to remain overtly apolitical.

“The picture of the Bharath Matha adorning the Raj Bhavan’s central hall projects the RSS’s narrow Hindu majoritarian and communally sectarian view of the country. It has no place in a constitutional office or at a government function as in the case of other political symbols,” he added.

CPI State secretary Binoy Viswam said the Bharath Matha symbol projected a discomfiting and anti-constitutional notion of Hindu nationalism, which aspired to relegate people of other faiths and religious traditions as subaltern citizens.

“Nevertheless, the incumbent Governor is starkly different from his predecessor. The LDF has no quarrel with him,” Mr. Viswam said. 

Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan accused the LDF of genuflecting to the Governor. He dared Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to call a spade a spade and criticise the Governor for allegedly attempting to transform Raj Bhavan into the RSS’s bully pulpit.

Last month, Raj Bhavan courted controversy by hosting columnist S. Gurumoorthy, whom the government and Opposition portrayed as an RSS ideologue.

Meanwhile, former BJP State president Kummanam Rajasekharan accused the ruling front and the Opposition of perceiving nationalism with a jaundiced eye. “Both the Congress and the CPI(M) view nationalism through the prism of religion,” he said.

Published - June 05, 2025 07:43 pm IST