Former Law Minister Ashwani Kumar resigns from Congress
New Delhi(PTI): Former Law Minister Ashwani Kumar on Tuesday resigned from the Congress, ending his 46-year-long association with the grand old party.
Kumar sent his resignation to Congress President Sonia Gandhi this morning, saying he can best serve national causes outside the party fold.
"Having given my thoughtful consideration to the matter, I have concluded that in the present circumstances and consistent with my dignity, I can best subserve larger national causes outside the party fold," Kumar said in his resignation letter.
"I am accordingly quitting the party after a long association of 46 years and hope to proactively pursue public causes inspired by the idea of transformative leadership, based on the dignitarian promise of a liberal democracy envisioned by our freedom fighters," the former Rajya Sabha MP also said.
Kumar leaves in the midst of assembly polls in five states and ahead of the February 20 election in Punjab.
His resignation comes close on the heels of a spate of resignations, the most recent being that of another former union minister R P N Singh.
A number of party leaders have quit the Congress in the recent past. These include Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada, Sushmita Dev and Louisinho Faleiro.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
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.
