Health, Panchayat and Rural Development minister T. S. Singhdeo has raised objection to printing ‘lotus’ on the passport by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
He raised the objection through a tweet on Friday. In his tweet he asked whether the ‘BJP’s party symbol is now going to replace the national emblem on Passports. “What’s the next? ‘REPUBLIC OF RSS’”, he said. Talking about the safety features he mocked saying “we all saw lots of it in the new currency notes that came equipped with hi-tech chips”.
Notably, Congress MP from Kozhikode M K Raghavan had raised the issue in parliament during zero hour stating that such passports were distributed in Kozhikode. Raghavan alleged that government institutions are being saffronised as “lotus” is an election symbol of BJP.
The MEA had clarified that for further strengthening the security features the “lotus” symbol has been used. Other national symbols will also be used thereafter one after the other, it had said.
