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Deendayal Upadhyay's photo to be mandatory on Rajasthan govt's letterheads

Last Updated 14 December 2017, 17:25 IST

Rajasthan becomes the first state to have Jan Sangh founder Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay's photograph on all government letterheads alongside the national emblem.

The order signed by PK Goyal, Principal Secretary, General administration department has made it mandatory for all government departments of Rajasthan to have printed pictures of Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay on their letterheads.

The order dated on Dec 12, 2017, reads, "State government has decided all departments, municipal, boards and self-governance departments to use the new latter heads with the photograph of Deendayal Upadhyay".

Furthermore, the order has made it mandatory for the respective departments to paste the sticker of Deendayal Upadhyay's photograph on existing letterheads until the new ones are printed.

Earlier this year Rajasthan government issued orders mandating the use of a Deendayal Upadhyaya logo on all government advertisements. In another move, BJP had asked all their MLAs to use the logo on their official letterheads for all correspondence. Interestingly the ‘logo’ features a picture of Upadhyaya along with a mention of his centenary year, 1916-2016.

'Saffronisation move'

Opposition party congress has stated this cosmetic change as an attempt to propagate the ideology of Hindutva. Speaking to DH, Congress Chief Sachin Pilot said, "This move is completely unacceptable. Deendayal Upadhyay is only a party leader for BJP. He is not any former Prime Minister or President. It becomes completely unacceptable to have his photograph on official letterheads of Rajasthan government."

Calling Deendayal Upadhyaya a Hindutva ideologue, the government's move has been thoroughly criticised by social groups by calling it unethical and unconstitutional.

Deendayal Upadhyaya, the RSS pracharak, thinker and leader of Bharatiya Jana Sangh also finds mention in major government policies and government school libraries in Rajasthan have been asked to buy complete volumes on his biography and works.

A set of 15 volumes on include letters, journals, the collection of writings and speeches of Upadhyaya.

The order has run into trouble as the volume costs Rs 6,000, which is almost four times the annual budget sanctioned for a school to buy books. Then also opposition criticised the move by calling it a multi-crore scam and another effort to saffronise education.

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(Published 14 December 2017, 17:25 IST)

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