The Bharat Mata portrait row involving Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishawanath Arlekar triggered a series of street protests and a war of words on Saturday with the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist's official mouthpiece publishing a hard-hitting editorial against the Raj Bhavan.
The southern state has been witnessing a tussle between Arlekar and the Marxist party-led Left Democratic Front government over the display of 'Bharat Mata portrait' during official events at the Raj Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram.
In a strongly worded editorial, Deshabhimani, the official organ of the Marxist party in the state, asserted that Raj Bhavan is not a "shakha" (unit) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
As per the latest photos released by Raj Bhavan, the Governor paid floral tributes to the portrait during the Yoga Day celebrations held there on Saturday.
The Left party's trade union outfit, CITU, took out a protest march to the Raj Bhavan accusing the Governor of attempting to make it a centre of the RSS and violating the Constitution of the country.
The Students' Federation of India (SFI) raised a banner in front of the Sanskrit College here, which comes under the Kerala University, stating that Raj Bhavan is not the property of the RSS.
"We want to say something once more, Mr Governor...Raj Bhavan is not RSS's ancestral property," the banner read.
In Kozhikode, Yuva Mocha, the BJP's youth wing, waved black flags against General Education Minister V Sivankutty, who recently boycotted an event at the Raj Bhavan in protest against the display of the Bharat Mata portrait there.
Though a Morch activist was taken into custody by the police soon, SFI activists, who rushed to the area, pushed and hit him at Thali in the northern district.
The area witnessed scuffle between the SFI workers, the BJP and the Morcha activists on the street for some time.
The right wing activists later burnt an effigy of Sivankutty as a mark of protest against his walking away from the recent event held in Raj Bhavan.
Meanwhile, the BJP workers paid floral tributes to the portrait of 'Bharat Mata', similar to the one placed in Raj Bhavan, in various district centres as a mark of protest against the Left government's stand in the matter.
In Thiruvananthapuram, the portrait was placed in front of Secretariat, the administrative hub while the protest event was held in Kota Maidan in Palakkad.
Speaking to media on the sidelines of the protest event at Palakkad, senior BJP leader N Sivarajan demanded that the saffron flag be made the national flag of the country.
A former member of the BJP national council, Sivarajan also made objectionable remarks against Minister Sivankutty.
While union minister Suresh Gopi and BJP former state president K Surendran strongly justified the display of Bharat Mata portrait in Raj Bhavan events, Sivankutty continued to criticise Governor Arlekar over the practice.
Addressing reporters in Kochi, Gopi said Governor has exercised his rights legally and accused the state government of creating an unnecessary controversy over it to hide something.
Surendran said in Kochi that the state ministers have no right to adopt a stand that the saffron flag and Bharat Mata portrait cannot be kept at Raj Bhavan.
He said the LDF government had earlier opposed the observance of the Yoga Day also in a similar manner alleging that it was Sangh Parivar agenda and now they are celebrating it.
Sivankutty said in Kozhikode that he walked away from the Raj Bhavan function to protect the Constitutional values.
Jose K Mani, chairman of the Kerala Congress (M), a front partner in LDF, also strongly objected to the display of Bharat Mata portrait in Raj Bhavan, calling it "unconstitutional".
Earlier in the day, the Deshabhimani editorial accused the Governor of publicly challenging the Constitution of the country by making Raj Bhavan a venue to display and propagate RSS ideology.
How else could this act be called other than the blatant violation of the constitutional norms, it asked.
"The Governor and his associates should understand that the Raj Bhavan is not an RSS Shakha. The secular minds of the state are not ready to accept the concept of nation put forward by the RSS," the editorial further said.
A circumstance has been created in the country nowadays that it was natural for religion to interfere in politics and vice versa, it said.
"The floral tribute to the portrait of the woman who holds a saffron flag in her hand is the continuation of the same circumstance," it said, and alleged that the objective of the act is to intensify the mission to realise the Hindu nation concept by the RSS.
That danger should be checked by upholding strong secular politics, the CPI(M) newspaper added.
On Friday, the Congress and the CPI said Kerala Governor Arlekar was behaving as a 'swayamsevak' and turning Raj Bhavan, his official residence, into a centre of the RSS.
AICC general secretary K C Venugopal also sought the President's intervention into the matter in view of the Governor's conduct of "misusing his constitutional position" in connection with the Bharat Mata controversy.
The Left student outfits, including SFI, have been on a warpath for some time against the usage of the Bharat Mata portrait during official functions in Raj Bhavan and the display of portraits of RSS ideologues there.
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