Kerala Finance Minister’s Budget speech cover features painting depicts Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination

Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac presented the state Budget on Friday. The cover of his Budget speech featured a painting by a Malayalam artist of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination scene.

Commenting about it, Isaac said the same was definitely a political statement. “We are sending out a message that we will not forget who murdered Gandhi. This is important at the times when history is being re-written. There is an attempt to erase some popular memories and use National Register of Citizens (NRC) to divide the population on communal lines. Kerala will stand united,” he was quoted as saying in a tweet posted by ANI

In his Budget speech, Isaac said that the central government is 'strangulating' the southern state by denying funds. The central government is ‘helping' the corporate sector rather than the common man, he added.

The implementation of GST has not been beneficial for Kerala, Isaac said in his speech while presenting the 2020-21 budget of the Pinarayi Vijayan led-LDF government.