Ragpicker injured in Kolkata blast
Kolkata, Sep 14: A ragpicker was injured in a blast that took place in central Kolkata on Saturday, a police officer said.
The explosion occurred when he was "near a plastic bag" at the crossing of Blochmann Street and SN Banerjee Road.
"The injured person was identified as 58-year-old Bapi Das, who lives on a footpath beside S N Banerjee Road. He is a ragpicker," the officer said.
The injured person suffered injuries in his right wrist and is being treated at the Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital.
"The area was cordoned off and a bomb disposal squad reached the place. They checked the bag and the vicinity," he said.
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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.
