Reiterating his demand to include the pictures of Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganesha on the currency notes, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to introduce currency notes with images of the deities along with that of Mahatma Gandhi.

“One hundred and thirty crore people of the country wish that there should be a picture of Gandhi ji on one side and Shri Ganesh ji and Lakshmi ji on the other side of Indian currency”, he said in the letter.

The letter further says that the country’s economy is passing through a very bad phase. “Even after 75 years of independence, India is counted among the developing and poor countries. There are so many poor people in our country even today. Why?” Kejriwal asked.

“On one hand we all countrymen need to work hard and on the other hand we also need the blessings of God so that our efforts are fruitful. Right policy, hard work and God’s blessings will only make the country progress through their confluence,” reads the letter.

“I publicly demanded this in a press conference,” Kejriwal said in the letter. Since then, there has been tremendous support from the general public on this issue, there is tremendous enthusiasm among the people about it. Everyone wants this to be implemented immediately, it added.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Delhi Chief Minister had made an appeal to the prime minister to consider including the images of Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganesh on currency notes in India to “improve the economic situation of the country”.

“Today I appeal to the Central government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On Indian currency there is a photo of Gandhi ji, let that be, on the other side of currency, a photo of Shri Ganesh Ji and Lakshmi ji should be put.

As I said, we have to make a lot of effort to improve the economic situation of our country. But also with that, we need blessings from Gods and Goddesses. The whole country will get blessings if on currency notes, there is a photo of Ganesh Ji and Lakshmi ji on one side and Gandhi ji on other side,” Kejriwal said during the media briefing.

“If Indonesia can do it; choose Ganesh Ji, so can we… I will write to the Centre tomorrow or the day after tomorrow to appeal for it… we need the Almighty’s blessings apart from the efforts to settle the economic condition of the country,” the Delhi chief minister said.

Lord Ganesha is inscribed on the 20,000 rupiah note of Indonesia.

However, the Delhi chief minister faced backlash for his remark from several Opposition parties including the BJP.

Both the BJP and the Congress slammed the Delhi chief minister for his demand and termed his statement “vote bank politics” ahead of Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.

Notably, India’s foreign exchange reserves during the week that ended on October 14 fell to an over two-year low of USD 528.367 billion, a drop of USD 4.5 billion from the previous week.

In the preceding week, the country’s foreign exchange reserves were at USD 532.868 billion, RBI data showed.

According to RBI’s data, India’s foreign currency assets, which are the biggest component of the forex reserves, declined by USD 2.828 billion to USD 468.668 billion during the week.

The value of gold reserves dropped by USD 1.5 billion to USD 37.453 billion during the week.

The value of India’s Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) with the International Monetary Fund declined by USD 149 million to USD 17.433 billion during the week under review, the RBI data showed. The reserves have been falling for months now because of RBI’s likely intervention in the market to defend the depreciating rupee against a surging US dollar.

For the record, the Indian rupee has been weakening over the past few weeks to hit fresh new all-time lows as the US dollar strengthened against major global currencies.