New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to include the pictures of deities Ganesha and Lakshmi on currency notes.
Addressing a media briefing, Kejriwal appealed to print the photos of Ganesha and Lakshmi on the fresh currency notes. The fresh currency may have a picture of Mahatma Gandhi on one side and of the two deities on the other, he said.
“Despite making efforts, sometimes our efforts do not fructify if gods and goddesses are not blessing us. I appeal to PM to have photos of Lord Ganesha and Goddess Lakshmi on our currency,” Kejriwal said.
Citing the example of Indonesian currency that carries the picture of Ganesha on its note, Kejriwal said, “If there is a photo of Lakshmi-Ganesha on our currency, our country will prosper.” The Delhi CM also said that he will write to the prime minister in this regard in a day or two on this.
“Indonesia is a Muslim majority country and has only 2-3 per cent Hindus and they have Ganesh ji’s photo on their currency... when Indonesia can do why can’t we do,” Kejriwal said while addressing the media.
Delhi Chief Minister clarified that he was not asking to change the currency notes, instead was requesting for new currency notes to include pictures of Lakshmi and Ganesh. “Everyday new currency notes are printed. These pictures can be added then,” Kejriwal said, adding that the two deities were associated with prosperity.
However, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the government had already put a lid on the issue way back in 2010.
An RTI reply to this effect on the Indian Currency Note (ICN) was sent by the Department of Economic Affairs’ Additional Secretary Manisha Sinha to a Pune businessman Prafful Sarda in 2019.
The government said that a high-level panel (October 2010) constituted by the RBI had deliberated at length on the need for inclusion of other eminent personalities, Bharat Ratnas, Nobel laureates, freedom fighters or sports persons on the ICN design.
The High-Level Screening Committee - set up on the advice of the then Government of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh - felt that “no other personality could better represent the ethos of India better than Mahatma Gandhi”.
“Therefore, it was decided to retain the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi on the obverse of banknotes and on the watermark. Government has approved the recommendation,” declared the RTI reply of November 11, 2019, sent from the North Block.
Later, a former MP of All India Trinamool Congress and former cricketer Kirti Azad had raised the issue in Parliament for including other prominent personalities on the ICNs, but the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had cited the RBI panel’s report in response.
