Return flats, iPads as well: Congress to BJP MLAs after they decide to return iPhones
Jaipur, Feb 24: A day after the opposition BJP decided that its MLAs will return iPhones gifted to them by the Rajasthan government, the Congress on Thursday said the saffron party legislators should also return all such items received by them till now.
All the 200 MLAs of the Rajasthan assembly were given iPhone 13 by the government on Wednesday after the presentation of the state budget. BJP MLAs too received the mobile phones but later decided to return them, saying it was a burden on the state exchequer.
It (giving mobiles as a gift) is not a serious issue but if they (BJP MLAs) have decided to return the phones, they should also then return the flats and iPads which they received in the past, deputy chief whip Mahendra Chaudhary told reporters.
Congress MLA Krishna Poonia questioned why the BJP legislators now view the gift a financial burden when they accepted such things in the past.
They (BJP MLAs) happily accepted phones yesterday, but decided to return later. They should not have accepted the gift (on Wednesday itself). Only because they couldn't criticise the budget, they are creating an issue, she said.
BJP state president Satish Poonia said the decision to return the phones was taken after discussion with leader of opposition Gulab Chand Kataria and deputy leader of opposition Rajendra Rathore.
The phones will be returned, he asserted.
We (MLAs) will return the gift as per the decision of the party, BJP state spokesperson and MLA Ram Lal Sharma said.
The BJP has 71 MLAs in the house of 200.
After the chief minister presented the budget and the house was adjourned for the day, all the MLAs were given a briefcase containing iPhone 13. One phone costs over Rs 70,000.
Ayush Bhardwaj, Youth Congress state general secretary, accused the BJP of adopting double standards and said it was creating an issue because it could not say anything against the budget presented by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in the assembly on Wednesday.
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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.
