Kerala CM slams Centre’s stamp and ₹100 coin for RSS centenary, calls it ‘grave insult to Constitution’

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has criticised the BJP-led Central government’s decision to issue postage stamp and a ₹100 coin celebrating the centenary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), calling it a “grave insult to our Constitution.” 

In a post on X, Mr. Vijayan slammed the Centre’s attempt to “legitimise an organisation that abstained from the freedom struggle, promoting a divisive ideology that aligned with the colonial strategy (of divide and rule)“. 

He said the “national honour is a direct assault on the memory of our true freedom fighters and the secular, unified India they envisioned”. 

Mr. Vijayan also sounded a warning against the “perils posed by combative right-wing Hindu nationalism” to India’s secular polity on Gandhi Jayanti Day on Thursday (October 2, 2025). 

In a Facebook post, Mr. Vijayan said that “Hindu majoritarian extremists had shot Mahatma Gandhi dead for defending secularism and democracy.”

“The fanatical assassins viewed Gandhian values as a formidable ideological and political impediment to imposing their revanchist view of a homogeneous Hindu nation”, he said. 

Mr. Vijayan said Gandhi was “martyred for his idea of India as a secular, inclusive and pluralistic nation.”

“It is on the eve of Gandhi Jayanti that the Central government issued a stamp and a coin commemorating the 100th year of formation of the RSS, which the authorities had proscribed after the Gandhi assassination”, he said. 

Mr. Vijayan said the RSS “feared even the memory” of Mahatma Gandhi.

“The Central government is seeking to rewrite history by attempting to supplant Gandhi with Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, an RSS ideologue who faced trial in the Gandhi assassination case, as the true leader of the Indian Independence movement”, he stated. 

Earlier, speaking at the third death anniversary of the late Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan in Kannur on Thursday, Mr. Vijayan had in strong terms flagged the “existential threat” posed by the RSS to “minorities and marginalised sections of society”.

“The RSS aspired for a Hindu theocracy which adhered to an oppressive caste system that perceived minorities, including linguistic minorities, Dalits, tribals and backward classes as subaltern citizens of low social status. The RSS has borrowed a page from the German fascist leader (Adolf) Hitler’s playbook and sought the annihilation of minorities, which it viewed as treasonous fifth columnists for forging a Hindu totalitarian state”, he said.

Mr. Vijayan said the ideological line between the Congress and the RSS was increasingly blurred. “An array of Congress leaders from the early days of the organisation had an affinity for RSS ideology. The profound ideological ambiguity in the Congress in defending secularism ultimately paved the way for the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party in erstwhile Congress-ruled States in the country”, he said.