Not inviting Mallikarjun Kharge to G20 gala dinner is "wrong", says CM Siddaramaiah
Hubballi (KTK) (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday termed as 'wrong' Congress Party chief Mallikarjun Kharge not being invited to the G20 gala dinner in Delhi.
He also said, he will not be attending the dinner due to prior work commitments.
President Droupadi Murmu will host the dinner today at Bharat Mandapam, the venue for the G20 Summit of world leaders in New Delhi.
"He (Kharge) is not only the Congress President, he is the leader of opposition in the upper house (Rajya Sabha). According to me he should have been invited, not inviting him is wrong," Siddaramaiah told reporters in Hubballi.
Asked whether he will be attending the dinner, he said, "no, I will not be able to go, as have some other work commitments."
Though Kharge and other opposition leaders were not invited to the dinner, Union Ministers and Chief Ministers, including that of states ruled by opposition parties, have received invites.
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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.
