The Kerala high court, on Monday, dismissed RTI activist Peter Myaliparampi’s petition to do away with the Prime Minister’s photograph on vaccine certificates. The petitioner charged the ruling party with converting the national campaign against COVID-19 into a media campaign for the Prime Minister.
In response, the judge hauled Mr Myaliparampi for wasting the court’s time and admonished him saying that the Prime Minister is an elected representative. The order issued by Single Bench of PV Kunhikrishnan read: “He came to power through popular mandate. Political differences cannot be the crux to challenge his image on the certificate. A hundred crore people don’t seem to have an issue with this. So why do you?
To elaborate, the court drew a parallel in stating that the petitioner worked as a state-level master coach at the Jawaharlal Nehru Leadership Institute. “You work at an Institute named after a Prime Minister. Why don’t you ask the university to remove it?”
For his part, the petitioner held on saying that government messaging and campaigns, especially when it uses government funds, should not personify any leader of the political party. This tends to colour voting preferences and hence stands in contradiction with the fundamental civil rights in a democracy.
Mr Myaliparampi argued that according to guidelines stipulated by the Apex Court, for campaigns using public money, no individual can be credited for the launch of an initiative or be celebrated for achievements of the State at government expense. He brought to light that the certificates have been worded such that Mr Modi appears to be “saviour of sorts” and this might lead the politically naive to vote for him.
