Delhi CM and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday appealed to PM and the Central government to include images of Lord Ganesh and Goddess Lakshmi on currency notes. Kejriwal said that he wants everyone in India should be rich and sometimes, no matter how much one tries, something falls short. “Efforts are fruitful only when we have blessings of gods and goddesses,” he said.
“Day before yesterday was Diwali. We all prayed to Lord Ganesh and Goddess Lakshmi. We prayed for health, wealth and prosperity. We know how businessmen have images of Lord Ganesh and Lakshmiji in their rooms and before starting their work pray to them. Today I want to appeal to Central government and Prime Minister to include Lord Ganesh and Goddess Lakshmi on the Indian currency. The image of Gandhi ji can be as it is. To improve our economy we need to make a lot more efforts but we also need blessings of our gods and goddesses,” he said while addressing media.
Kejriwal further said that MK Gandhi’s image should remain as it is, but if the other side has images of Lord Ganesh and Goddess Lakshmi, the entire country will be blessed. He added that the current currency notes can be kept as is but the new notes which are printed can have the images of Hindu god and goddess.
He claimed that Indonesia, a country with 85% Muslim population and only 2% Hindu population but even they have Lord Ganesh image on their currency notes. “Hence I feel that this is an important step that the central government should take up,” he said. He added that the idea struck him when he was doing Lakshmi Pujan on Diwali night.
This move, however, did not quite go down well with Muslim Twitter users for whom praying to any other god except Allah is a sin.
Some Muslim Twitter users also called him a ‘Chhota Recharge’ of RSS, the Hindu nationalist voluntary group.
One Twitter user even wondered what would have happened if AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi would have suggested ‘La Ilaha Ilallah’ (there is no God but Allah) on currency notes.
Some even claimed India is a secular country and hence images of Hindu gods and goddesses should not be put up on the currency notes.
Other Aam Aadmi Party leaders, like Amanatullah Khan and Gopal Italia have not yet responded to this.