Congress believes in 'Gandhi's Hindutva' says CM Siddaramaiah
Belagavi (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said Mahatma Gandhi was a diehard Hindu and the Congress believes in "Gandhi's Hindutva".
BJP always projected Mahatma Gandhi as 'anti-Hindu' but one must understand that it is 100 per cent false, Siddaramaiah said at the inauguration of Mahatma Gandhi's statue in front of Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, top Congress functionaries such as K C Venugopal, Randeep Singh Surjewala Congress ministers, MPs and legislators participated in the event.
The event was organised to commemorate the centenary of the lone Congress session in which Mahatma Gandhi had chaired as the Congress president way back in 1924.
The Chief Minister said, "Mahatma Gandhi used to utter the name of Lord Rama, always. When Nathuram Godse assassinated him, he uttered 'Hey Ram'. There cannot be a better example of it. He was a diehard Hindu."
According to him, Gandhi was never against Hindu faith but he wished to bring reform in Hinduism. He always wanted to see Hindus and Muslims live like brothers.
Gandhi did not limit himself to the freedom struggle but gave guidelines on governance and explained how the ministers should conduct themselves, Siddaramaiah explained.
"We believe in Mahatma Gandhi's Hindutva and they (BJP) believe in dividing the society. They are 'Manuvadis'. We believe in the Indian constitution and BJP goes against the Congress ideology. So we must protect the constitution and save democracy. If we protect the constitution, then it would protect us," the Chief Minister said.
Siddaramaiah also charged that the BJP attempted for the past many years to weaken the constitution.
Speaking on the occasion, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said there would have been anarchy in the country if there was no constitution in the country.
"This is the reason that these days people remember Gandhiji and appreciate him. People hail him for his work, his sacrifices and contributions," 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.
