Mamata Banerjee likely to meet Modi in Delhi on Wednesday
Kolkata, Sept 16: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the national capital on Wednesday, state secretariat sources confirmed on Monday.
Banerjee will be leaving for New Delhi on Tuesday, the sources said.
The two leaders likely to hold discussions on administrative issues of West Bengal at the meeting, he added.
Banerjee has been one of the harshest critics of BJP and Modi.
"An appointment was sought by the chief minister's office last week from Modi's office for the meeting. It will take place in New Delhi on Wednesday," the official said.
The proposed meeting assumes significance as it will be held at a time when several leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress and former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar are under CBI scanner in connection with the Saradha ponzi scam.
The Saradha group of companies had allegedly duped lakhs of people to the tune of Rs 2500 crore, promising higher rates of returns on their investments.
The last time the two leaders had met was at the convocation ceremony at Visva Bharati University held in Shantiniketan on May 25, 2018.
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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.
