Thiruvananthapuram: Barely days after it faced
flak for displaying a painting of Jesus alongside Communist
icons at an exhibition, the CPI(M) in Kerala has landed itself
in another soup after a billboard carrying a political spoof
at a party conference raised hackles here.
The board, depicting US President Barack Obama at a table
along with Congress and BJP leaders, was a takeoff on Leonardo
da Vinci`s famous `The Last Supper`, showing Jesus with his
disciples.
CPI(M), however, claimed it had no knowledge of how the
board had landed at the party`s state conference at
Thirkannapuram near here and said it had no intention "to
blemish the values of Jesus Christ or Christianity".
"The board was put up without the knowledge of any
responsible party worker… the party has no intention to blemish the values of Christ or Christianity," CPI(M) state
secretary Pinarayi Vijayan said.
"The moment the matter came to the notice of the local
party leaders, it was removed from the place by the party
itself," Vijayan said, adding the incident had happened a week
ago and the board had been displayed in public for only about
30 minutes.
Vijayan was reacting to the news report in a Malayalam
daily about the board, titled `The Last Supper of Capitalism`.
The controversy comes close on the heels of the criticism
faced by the party over the display of a painting of Jesus
along with icons of Communism like Karl Marx, Lenin and Che
Guevera at a CPI-M organised exhibition in the city.
The party had defended itself saying Jesus was a frontline
soldier for the liberation of the suppressed in human history.
Alleging that there was an attempt to tarnish the image of
the party, CPI(M) District Secretary Kadakampalli Surenderan
said the party has filed a complaint with the police on the
matter.
"The party suspects that there is a conspiracy to soil the
image of the party," he said.
PTI
