Mangaluru, August 16: Former minister Ramanath Rai said that when he was the forest minister in the previous Congress government, he had written to the government demanding rejection of Dr Kasturirangan report.
Speaking to reporters at the party office here on Thursday, Rai said that the allegation of Belthangady MLA Harish Poonja was far from truth. Now, the central government is planning to implement the Kasturirangan report. Knowing this, the BJP leaders have been making baseless allegations against the Congress. If the Centre implemented the report, the Congress would fight against it. If the BJP leaders do not want the report to be implemented, let them join hands with the Congress in fighting against it, he challenged.
District Minister UT Khader, mayor Bhaskar Moily, leaders Ibrahim Kodijal, Vittal Shetty, Shashidhar Hegde and others were present.

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.
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.
