Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan condemns stamp and coin marking RSS centenary

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has strongly condemned the Centre’s decision to mark the centenary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh with the release of a commemorative postage stamp and a one -hundred- rupee coin. He described the gesture as nothing short of a grave insult to the spirit of the Indian Constitution.

Writing on the social media platform X, Vijayan asserted that such honours grant legitimacy to an organisation which had distanced itself from the anti-colonial struggle while nurturing a divisive ideology. He argued that the RSS, rather than resisting British domination, chose positions that conveniently aligned with colonial calculations.

“This act strikes directly at the memory of those who sacrificed for India’s freedom,” the Chief Minister observed. “The honour is extended not to genuine patriots but to a movement that worked to fracture the unity of our people, undermining the vision of a secular and democratic republic.”

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the stamp and coin in New Delhi as part of the RSS centenary celebrations. The coin bears the organisation’s motto, “Rashtray Swaha, Idam Rashtraya, Idam Na Mama”, translated as “Everything is dedicated to the nation, Everything belongs to the nation, Nothing is mine.” For the first time in Indian currency history, the figure of Bharat Mata is also depicted.

The postal stamp, meanwhile, portrays RSS volunteers marching in the Republic Day Parade of 1963. Leaders of the CPI M dismissed the imagery as a deliberate distortion of history, stressing that it attempts to rewrite the national record to suit sectarian narratives.