Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan has come out against the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front government’s anti- Citizenship (Amendment) Act [CAA] advertisement on the front page of national dailies and said spending public money for political campaigning is “thoroughly undesirable.”
The State-sponsored advertisement, published on Friday, claimed that “the State is leading the efforts to protect Constitutional values” and its Assembly was the first to pass a unanimous resolution against the controversial CAA.
The Governor, who was in New Delhi, told television channels that spending public money for a political campaign was “thoroughly undesirable.”
“...public money is being used to campaign against a law which has been passed by Parliament. Sounds a bit strange to me..,” he said.
The Governor said it would not have been a problem if the advertisement was given by a political party.
Govt. ads
The Kerala government had published in three national dailies that the State had taken “bold initiatives to address the apprehensions of the public” and had stayed the National Population Register drive that could lead to the NRC (National Register of Citizens).
The State, which also leads in the human development index, is ranked first among the States in poverty eradication, health standards, education, gender equality and realising novel ideas, the advertisement claimed.
The State government had on August 7, 2017 published an advertisement in the national capital that the State had one of the lowest crime rates in the country, to counter a campaign by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh against the CPI(M) in Kerala over political killings.
