The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday said that the issue of lotus being printed on passports was part of the enhanced security features to identify fake passports and involves using other national symbols as well in rotation. This comes a day after Opposition members in Lok Sabha raised the issue of lotus being printed on new passports.
This did not go down so well with netizens and they have been expressing their views in the way they know best: by posting about it on social media. There are tweets that have been doing the rounds range from hilarious to bizarre.
One user said, "Any symbol other than the holy Lotus would not offer the same level of security." While other user said, "And if Modi pic is put, u can retrieve your passport when lost, by chanting Motimatra." Even one user questioned that is passport security is more important than women security.
Here's a look at what Twitterati had to say:
Raising this issue of lotus being printed on new passports brought for distribution in Kozhikode in Kerala during the Zero Hour, M K Raghavan of the Congress said the matter has been highlighted by one of the newspapers and alleged that this was "further saffronisation" of the government establishment with the lotus being the election symbol of the BJP.
Asked about the issue, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, "This symbol is our national flower and is part of the enhanced security features to identify fake passports." These security features have been introduced as part of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) guidelines, he said.
"Apart from the Lotus, other national symbols will be used on rotation. Right now it is lotus and then next month there will be something else. These are symbols connected with India such as national flower or national animal," he said.
(Inputs from Agencies)