Police use force as Youth Congress protests against Kerala CM
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): The Congress' youth wing's protest march to the secretariat demanding the resignation of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan over LDF MLA P V Anvar's allegations against top IPS officers in the state turned violent as police used water cannons on the protestors and lathi-charged them.
The state vice-president of the Youth Congress, Abin Varkey, was surrounded by police personnel and brutally beaten, causing injuries to his head, according to visuals shown on TV channels.
Varkey, who was seen bleeding from his head due to the beating, refused to leave the protest site for the hospital and demanded action against a certain police officer.
Several other YC activists were injured in the police action, according to the visuals.
While Varkey refused to budge from the site, YC state president Rahul Mamkootathil was forcibly removed from the area and put in a police bus and taken away despite the protestors efforts to prevent it.
Prior to the area outside the secretariat turning into a battle zone, the YC activists shouted slogans against the Left government, Vijayan, his political secretary P Sasi and ADGP (law and order) M R Ajithkumar.
Mamkootathil alleged that Vijayan, Sasi and the ADGP have turned the secretariat into an underworld hub.
On Wednesday, the Youth Congress had held protests in various parts of Kerala demanding the CM's resignation in connection with the allegations by Anvar against Sasi and some top IPS officers in the state.
The Congress party will carry out a protest march to the secretariat on Friday on the same issue.
Putting the CPI(M)-led government in a spot, Anvar, the MLA from Nilambur, had on Sunday accused Vijayan's political secretary P Sasi and ADGP (Law and Order) Ajith Kumar of breaching trust and failing to discharge their duties honestly.
He had alleged that Kumar tapped ministers' phone conversations, had links with gold smuggling rackets and was involved in serious crimes.
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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.
