Congress accuses PM of campaigning for Trump, says it violates 'time honoured principle'
New Delhi: The Congress has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of violating Indian foreign policy's "time honoured principle" of not interfering in the domestic elections of another country by campaigning for US President Donald Trump at the HowdyModi event in Houston.
In a series of tweets, Congress senior spokesperson Anand Sharma said Modi was in the US as India's prime minister, and not a star campaigner in the US elections.
"Mr Prime Minister, you have violated the time honoured principle of Indian foreign policy of not interfering in the domestic elections of another country. This is a singular disservice to the long-term strategic interests of India," Sharma said on Twitter after the Howdy Modi event in Texas on Sunday night.
"Our relationship with the United States of America have throughout been bipartisan, vis- -vis Republicans and Democrats. Your actively campaigning for Trump is a breach of both India and America as sovereign nations and democracies," he added.
Sharma's party colleague, P Chidambaram, who is in Tihar jail on charges of alleged corruption, also took a dig at the prime minister over his "Everything is fine in India" remark in Houston.
"Bharat mai sab achha hai. Except for unemployment, loss of existing jobs, lower wages, mob violence, lockdown in Kashmir and throwing Opposition leaders in prison," Chidambaram tweeted through his family.
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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.
