Kerala CM justifies CPI(M) not sending representative to INDIA coordination committee
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday justified the CPI(M) not sending a representative to the INDIA coordination committee and said the Left party opposed the idea of it becoming an organisation.
He said the decision not to be a part of the coordination committee was not taken now but much earlier.
Addressing a press conference here, the Left veteran also said the party's Polit Bureau and the Central Committee had held discussions on this earlier and decided on it.
"We accepted that there could be a platform or forum but opposed the idea of it becoming an organisation. That is why when they decided to set up a coordination committee - which is an organisational set-up- we opposed it," Vijayan said.
Responding to a question on Leader of the Opposition V D Satheesan's allegation that the CPI(M) central leadership decided against sending a representative solely due to the insistence of the party's Kerala leaders due to an unholy nexus with the BJP, the CM said the opposition leader suffers from "such issues" sometimes.
"His conclusions sometimes go terribly wrong," Vijayan said with a smile.
The CM also said anyone with a basic understanding of politics knows how CPI(M) works as a party.
"CPI(M) is not a party where either an individual or a state can force it to reach a particular decision. It is only the collective decision of CPI(M) that comes out," he added.
He also said that INDIA, as a platform, needed to be discussed only among senior leaders of political parties and in such discussions senior leaders of the CPI(M) would also participate.
"We are not against that," Vijayan added.
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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.
