P C George booked again for hate speech
Kochi(PTI): A week after he was arrested and released on bail for making controversial remarks against the Muslim community, another case was registered against senior politician P C George by the police on Tuesday, on charges of hate speech.
Palarivattom police here booked the former MLA over his objectionable remarks during a speech, which he delivered in connection with a temple festival at Vennala here on May 8.
The case was registered under IPC 153 (promoting enmity between different groups) and 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), a police officer said.
"The further proceedings in the case will be finalised after examining the details and bail conditions regarding the earlier case registered at Thiruvananthapuram," he told PTI.
Seventy year-old George, who was the chief whip while Congress-led UDF was in power, had sparked off a controversy by asking non-Muslims in Kerala to avoid restaurants run by the community.
Addressing a programme organised as part of the Ananthapuri Hindu Maha Sammelan here late last month, the former Kerala Congress leader had alleged that tea laced with "drops causing impotence" were sold in Muslim-run restaurants to turn people "infertile" in a bid to "seize control" of the country.
As the remarks triggered a widespread political controversy, a case was registered and he was arrested on May 1.
However, within a few hours of his arrest, George secured bail from a Magisterial court.
George, who represented the Poonjar constituency in the state Assembly for 33 years, had lost his bastion to the Left Democratic Front candidate in the 2021 Assembly polls in a triangular fight.
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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.
