BJP MLA installs Shivaji statue without permission, held
Jalna: A BJP MLA and over 40 supporters were arrested for installing a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji without permission in Maharashtra's Jalna district, police said.
Badnapur BJP MLA Narayan Kuche and his supporters brought the statue of the revered warrior-king to Pachod Road in the district's Ambad town in the early hours of Friday and had installed it after which police was alerted, an official said.
A team led by deputy superintendent of police CD Shivgan and local inspector Anirudh Nandedkar rushed to the spot to stop the unauthorised installation and to ensure the issue did not flare-up, the official added.
The statue has not been removed from the spot and further action would be taken after consultation with civic and district authorities, he added.
"They were arrested for the act and later released. The MLA did not have permission from authorities to install the statue," said sub-inspector Sugarve Chate of Ambad police station.
Kuche defended his act claiming the Ambad Municipal Council had earlier passed a resolution to install the statue and he was doing so due to public demand.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
