KVIC staff protest Modi's photo on diary

Mumbai: The decision of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) to feature Prime Minister Narendra Modi instead of Mahatma Gandhi, the hand-woven cloth’s renowned promoter, on its 2017 diary has sparked off protests by some of its employees in Vile Parle on Thursday.

The employees have accused the commission of replacing the father of the nation’s image with Mr Modi’s, but the KVIC chairman, Vinai Kumar Saxena, claims that Gandhi’s image hasn’t been on its diary for the last four years.

While the KVIC’s 2015 diary had an image of Gandhi, the freedom fighter was missing from last year’s edition. Speaking to The Asian Age, Mr Saxena said, “The diary and calendar of 2016 did not have Gandhiji’s photo on it, so where is the question of replacing him with Modiji? Gandhi is our icon and he is everywhere in the KVIC, but there is no precedence or law that his picture should be used. There is no controversy here, and it is being unnecessarily created. In fact, we have not used Gandhiji’s picture for the last four years.” Mr Saxena said Mr Modi will remain khadi’s brand ambassador and no one can match him, as he is the Prime Minister of the country.

When a KVIC official was told about the 2015 diary carrying Mahatma Gandhi’s photograph on its cover, he said, “We are talking about 2016. Gandhiji was not on the diary; so claims that he has been replaced with Modiji are baseless.”

Meanwhile, Mr Saxena claimed Mr Modi is doing exactly what Mahatma Gandhi had done during his lifetime — promoting khadi to generate employment and create a source of revenue in rural India. “Since Modiji became PM he has consistently urged Indians to use khadi in his speeches and his talks on Mann Ki Baat. He is promoting employment. Our growth has increased by 34 per cent since then. What earlier saw an annual growth of less than 6 per cent has now grown manifold. Why shouldn’t Narendra Modi be our icon then?” Mr Saxena said.   

Caption: Workers from the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, Vile Parle protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s picture on the 2017 diary instead of Mahatma Gandhi’s.