Samajwadi Party MP Rajeev Rai calls Bengaluru traffic ‘most notorious’
Bengaluru (PTI): Bengaluru’s traffic woes resurfaced after Samajwadi Party MP Rajeev Rai criticised the authorities for the "worst traffic management", calling the city’s roads the "most notorious".
Rai, who was in Bengaluru on Sunday, tagged Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in a post on 'X', saying he had been stuck for an hour on Rajkumar Samadhi Road and was at risk of missing his flight.
Reacting to the criticism, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who also oversees Bengaluru development, said he would meet the MP in Delhi and show him the traffic situation in the national capital.
"Okay. Let me meet him in Delhi and show him what traffic is like in Delhi. I will also tag him," Shivakumar told reporters.
In his post on November 30, Rai wrote: "I’m sorry, but you have the worst traffic management, and the most irresponsible, useless traffic police. They don’t even pick up phone calls — here is the screenshot of my attempt to speak to them; none of them picked up my call."
"For the last one hour, we were stuck at the same place on Rajkumar Samadhi Road. I am going to miss my flight; tomorrow I have to attend the Parliament session. Not a single policeman was seen around," he added.
"These inefficient officers are enough to spoil the name and charm of this beautiful city. No doubt Bengaluru traffic has earned the reputation of the most notorious traffic," Rai further said, tagging the Bengaluru Police Commissioner.
In recent months, the state government has faced mounting pressure from industry bodies and citizens over Bengaluru’s traffic and infrastructure issues.
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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.
