Kerala’s new finance minister has got the Math right on this one.T M Thomas Isaac now has the “much-shunned” state car number 13. This decisively ends controversies over Communist ministers avoiding the “unlucky” number for their official vehicles.
“Finally, got the car numbered 13”, Isaac, a senior CPM leader and MLA from Alappuzha, posted on his official Facebook page on Thursday, along with a photograph of the car.
Amid reports that newly sworn-in ministers were avoiding the no.13 car, Isaac requested for it, in a statement on superstitions regarding the number.
Even as critics questioned the rationalist base of Left ministers against the backdrop of the controversy, it was reported that official cars were merely handed over from ministers in the previous Congress-led government and none of them used the no. 13 car during their terms.
BJP leader K Surendran was among critics who “dared” CPM leaders including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to make a statement on the ministers’ “aversion” to no.13. CPM leader and Minister for Agriculture V S Sunilkumar had also stated that he had no problem being allotted the car.
Isaac’s post has already hit more than 2,000 Facebook shares.