Employees' associations said they were informed through an official email that the Chief Postmaster General, Thiruvananthapuram region, had ordered the cancellation of all Christmas events planned at post offices in the state.
Published Dec 18, 2025 | 11:48 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 18, 2025 | 11:48 PM
The BMS demanded the rendering of Gana Geetham during Christmas-New Year celebrations.
Synopsis: BMS’s demand for including Ganapati Stuti and Gana Geetham in Christmas-New Year celebrations at the Postal Department’s headquarters led to the cancellation of the event.
Christmas celebrations scheduled at post offices across Kerala were cancelled on Thursday, 18 December, following a controversy triggered by a demand to include the RSS’s Gana Geetham as part of the revelries.
The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the labour wing of the RSS, raised the demand in an apparent bid to showcase its patriotism on social media.
Postal employees’ associations said they were informed through an official email that the Chief Postmaster General, Thiruvananthapuram region, had ordered the cancellation of all Christmas events planned at post offices in the state.
The decision came amid mounting protests over a representation submitted by the BMS.
Incidentally, the BMS’s demand and the subsequent cancellation of the event came even as the Vice President, CP Radhakrishnan, attended a Christmas event of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India in New Delhi.
Speaking at the event on Thursday, the Vice President assured Christians that the government was with the minorities.
In its letter to postal authorities, the BMS had sought the inclusion of Ganapati Stuti and Gana Geetham in the Christmas–New Year celebrations at the Postal Department’s regional headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram.
The organisation described Gana Geetham as a patriotic song and also requested permission to video-record its rendition and circulate the footage on social media. The letter cited the recent inauguration of the Vande Bharat Express, during which students sang the song, as a precedent.
The demand, however, drew sharp opposition from Left- and Congress-affiliated employee organisations, which objected to the inclusion of an RSS-linked song in an official Christmas function.
As the controversy escalated, postal authorities decided to call off the celebrations altogether.
Kerala is known for its secular credentials that respect and celebrate festivals of all religions.
General secretary of the central government employees organisation (CCGEW), GR Pramod, criticised the move, alleging that cancelling the programme amounted to yielding to sectarian pressure and undermined the secular traditions of central government institutions.
The issue has revived memories of a recent row involving Southern Railway, which had shared a video on its official social media handle showing schoolchildren singing Gana Geetham during the inaugural run of the Ernakulam–KSR Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express.
The post, which described the song as patriotic, was withdrawn following widespread public criticism.
