NEW DELHI: As the Prime minister’s office dubbed PM Narendra Modi’s photo appearing on the diary and the calendar of Khadi and Village Industries Cooperation “unnecessary’, the Khadi commission defended the move by saying that there is no policy for mandatory use of photograph of Mahatma Gandhiji on the Diary and Calendar of KVIC and the design and creative are prepared every year based on the requirements and the developments that took place in KVI Sector. There have been many years, in which Mahatma Gandhi’s pictures were not published earlier.
Sources in the PMO said that in the past also there was no picture of Mahatma Gandhi on such KVIC material. They said that in the year of 1996, 2002, 2005, 2011,2012, 2013, 2016, there was no picture of Gandhi in KVIC calendar and diaries.
“The PM and the picture shows commitment to khadi at the highest level in the government. Because of the appeal made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his efforts at promoting Khadi, sales have gone up by 34% in 2015-16,” KVIC said in a statement.
A section of KVIC has protested the exclusion of Mahatma Gandhi's photo from the diary and the calendar even though they have no objection to Modi's picture appearing in these.
VK Saxena, chairman of the KVIC said that due to his pursuance, the statute of Mahatma Gandhi in London’s Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, which was earlier placed on the second floor near an Ice Cream Parlour close to a dustbin, was eventually shifted to “World Leaders’ Exhibition’ Hall.
Various opposition leaders have raised the issue of Mahatma Gandhi’s picture was missing from KVIC diary and calendar. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi tweeted that "The Mangalayaan effect," implying that Modi was trying to take credit for promotion of KVIC like he had allegedly done after India's spacecraft Mangalayaan landed on the Mars.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, "Khadi & Gandhiji are symbols of our history, self-reliance & struggle. Removing Gandhiji's photo is a sacrilegious sin."
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, "The great symbol of 'charka' (wheel) and Mahatma Gandhi now gets replaced by Modi babu. In the calendar and diary of Khadi (KVIC) 2017, Modi replaced Mahatma Gandhiji. Gandhiji is the Father of the Nation. Modiji what???"