Droupadi Murmu set to become first President to address Odisha Assembly
Bhubaneswar (PTI): Droupadi Murmu is set to script history on Thursday by becoming the first President to address the Odisha assembly during her two-day visit to the state, officials said.
Murmu is scheduled to address members of the Odisha Legislative Assembly from 4.30 pm to 5.30 pm, Speaker Surama Padhy said.
The President hails from Odisha, and is a former member of the assembly.
Murmu will arrive at the Biju Patnaik International Airport here at 2 pm and reach the Raj Bhavan at 2.20 pm to inaugurate the Kalinga Atithi Nivas, the officials said.
She was elected to the Odisha assembly from the Rairangpur seat in Mayurbhanj district twice – 2000 and 2004.
Padhy said Murmu will be the first President to visit and address the Odisha Assembly.
Murmu was also a minister in the BJD-BJP coalition government in Odisha.
The President will also visit room number 11, the chamber in the assembly from where she functioned as a minister.
She served as an MoS with independent charge for Commerce and Transportation from March 6, 2000 to August 6, 2002, and Fisheries and Animal Resources Development from August 6, 2002 to May 16, 2004.
The chamber has been renovated ahead of her visit, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Mahaling said.
In 2007, Murmu had received the ‘Nilkanth Award’ for the Best MLA of the Odisha assembly.
Governor Hari Babu Kambhampati, MPs from the state and eminent personalities are also scheduled to attend the proceedings when the President addresses the assembly.
Keeping in view the President's visit, the Odisha government has made elaborate security arrangements in Bhubaneswar, including in and around the assembly, the officials said.
The Winter Session of the assembly will begin on Friday and is scheduled to continue till December 31.
Murmu will leave for Uttar Pradesh on November 28.
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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.
