Shimla MC to raise issue of Lord Ram’s picture on cleanliness drive poster with Centre

The Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) has decided to take up with the Central Government the matter of BJP leaders as well as Hindu outfits opposing a poster showing Lord Ram shooting an arrow at a heap of garbage. It has stated that the poster as well as the message of cleanliness were taken from the official website of the Central Government.

A controversy started in Shimla recently after several Hindu outfits expressed displeasure over the display of Lord Ram’s picture in the posters and said it hurt their religious sentiments. The Hindu outfits lodged a complaint with the district police, which registered an FIR under Section 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings by insulting a religion or its beliefs) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, against the corporation. Later, several BJP leaders also took exception to the matter and demanded that the posters be removed from the city.

Shimla Mayor Surinder Chauhan said that the BJP was unnecessarily raking up a controversy over a cleanliness campaign poster in Shimla and deliberately attempting to mislead people.

“The reality is that the corporation did not issue the poster but the Central Government did under the Swachh Bharat Mission, a dream project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. To promote cleanliness in the city, we took the cleanliness message from the official website of the Central Government,” he claimed.

The Mayor said, “The poster in question is part of the material issued by the Central Government and is being displayed across the country. Therefore, BJP leaders are opposing its own government’s policy.”

Chauhan accused the BJP leaders of politicising the matter and said that those who sought votes in the name of Lord Ram were now using the poster issue to get political mileage. He added that people, who have never followed the ideals of Lord Ram, are now using his name to mislead people.

The Mayor questioned the BJP leaders’ opposition to the poster and said that it was part of the Central Government’s scheme. “I want to ask them that will they get an FIR registered against their own Central Government,” he added.

He appealed to people to support and strengthen the cleanliness campaign and reject the lies being spread by the BJP leaders to mislead them.