I was surprised when a friend informed me about the new two rupee coin of the Indian currency (year 2007), and at the very first sight the design looked pathetic and at a closer look, it was shocking!

The Indian currency has always remained secular with only national symbols like the lion capital of the Ashoka pillar being imprinted on it, with the inscription “Satyameva Jayate” meaning “Truth alone Triumphs”, and has also had the map of India sometimes.

But this new coin is a total deviation from the existing secular tradition of the Indian currency. The lion capital has been reduced to a much smaller size, smaller than the value ‘2? itself! More than half of the word ‘Satyameva Jayate’ has been smudged out! I strongly object to this irresponsible design.

And more than anything else, there has been a new prominent double lined cross symbol introduced, with dots like on some board game! I did some search on the internet to find out the source of this new symbol, and shockingly came across this !

The first row above shows the two sides of the old two rupee coin (note the prominent ashoka pillar and the map of India). The second row shows the new two rupee coin! I do not see anything prominent in the new coin, that represents or identifies the nation of India! In fact it actually looks like some old European coin.

Now I am very curious to know about this ’simple’ design of drawing four lines and placing four dots (probably the number of lines were two initially, I mean a cross actually, and then thought that by adding two more parallel lines, any controversy will be avoided!). Or is it some rangoli design that went wrong?

Till today I thought RBI was a non political entity. Sadly, I dont think so anymore.

And look at the way RBI describes this symbol.

“The reverse face of the coin shows stylised representation of ‘Unity in Diversity’ a defining characteristic of our country. The symbol shall be seen as four heads sharing a common body. It shall be thought of as people from all four parts of the country coming together under one banner and identifying with one nation. The visual code helps the user connect the visual with an individual denomination, which makes the process of identification quicker”

Where are the “ four heads sharing a common body “? Is it some invisible ghost? I can only see parallel lines! And from when did India start having ‘ four parts ‘? What nonsense is this ‘ stylised representation ‘? Any primary school student in India knows that, the ‘Unity in Diversity’ of India is due to the diverse linguistic, ethnic, cultural, religious nature of the country and not because of any ‘four imaginary geographical parts’ as claimed by RBI. I suggest the person who described the new symbol as stated above to refresh his/her primary school lessons once again.

‘The process of Identification’? Does it mean Indians cant read ‘2? or have they done any research that the new symbol is recognized by human brain as ‘2? more quicker than the numeric symbol ‘2? itself or does it mean that we have to “get used” to the new symbol ?

It is pretty obvious that the design looks like a Christian cross, irrespective of whether the designer intended to do so or not. The whole point here is, why to create unnecessary controversies and tensions? What next? Protests, waste of public money in parliament debates, offended sentiments, hate speech, communal divide, political mileage, votebank.

Look at the first coin below. Doesn’t the new RBI design look like a copy cat version of the symbol in this coin below? The coins below are ancient silver coins of roman currency called Denarius , issued during the times of Louis_the_Pious

Even if our administrators and politicians can’t really solve all our existing problems we will some how manage without complaining, but cant they at least stop adding new ones to an already existing lengthy list of problems?

It is very irritating to see public institutions allowing scope for unnecessary controversies like these. Hope the RBI withdraws all these coins as soon as possible and sticks to the basics in all future designs. I still believe that the currency coins can be designed without providing a scope for any controversies.

Also, look at the press releases page of the RBI website for the currency section. As of today (August 27 2007), the latest press release mentioned in the above link is of June 04, 2004 !! Have there been no press releases by RBI for the past three years, or has the web page become a museum piece now? Also clicking on the ‘Master Circulars’ section shows you a blank page with some weird error! We expect at least the RBI website to be maintained and updated professionally.

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