Gujarat: After Ram Navami violence, demolition drive begins in riot-hit Himmatnagar
Himmatnagar (PTI): Civic authorities have started a demolition drive against illegal structures in Gujarat's Himmatnagar city, where a communal clash had broken out during the Ram Navami celebration earlier this month, officials said on Tuesday.
Bulldozers were being used to remove encroachments in Chhapariya locality of Himmatnagar city in Sabarkantha district, they said.
"The municipality has started carrying out demolition in Chhapariya locality, which is close to where the communal clash had erupted on Ram Navami. Adequate security has been deployed in the area," Superintendent of Police Vishal Vaghela said.
A communal clash had broken out near Chhapariya area during a Ram Navami procession on April 10, when members from two communities resorted to pelting stones, leaving some people injured. Some vehicles were also set on fire during the clash.
The Anand district administration had also earlier carried out a demolition drive using bulldozers to remove structures owned by people allegedly involved in communal clashes in Khambhat town there during the Ram Navami celebration.
On April 10, a Ram Navami procession was also allegedly pelted with stones in Khambhat town. One person was killed and several others were injured in the ensuing violence.
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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.
