The Telugu Desam Party’s latest strategy of taking political mileage by whipping up communal passions in Andhra Pradesh, there by pleasing the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership in Delhi, seems to have backfired.
The TDP leaders sought to make a big issue out of a latest instance of a fair price shop dealer publishing the picture of Jesus Christ on the back of ration card. A copy of the ration card went viral in the social media.
They alleged that Christianity was being blatantly propagated under the Jagan Mohan Reddy regime and even the departments are being misused to spread Christianity, thereby hurting the sentiments of the Hindus.
Director of Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs, Food & Civil Supplies Department P Arun Babu clarified that the ration card belonged to a dealer from Vadlamuru in East Godvari district.
He said the ration cards were not printed by the department as a whole but by a single ration dealer on his own, for his own identification purpose. It is only for a particular village only, he clarified.
Apparently, the dealer had been using different images on ration cards while printing them.
For example, in 2016 the dealer had printed ration cards with Satya Saibaba on it. In 2017 and 2018, it was Lord Venkateshwara whose image adorned the ration card. And this year it was Jesus Christ.
The department asked the dealer to stop printing these ration cards, as it was causing embarrassment to the government.
