CM Siddaramaiah bats for unity after SC clears writer Banu Mushtaq for Dasara
Bengaluru (PTI): Hours after the Supreme Court rejected a plea against the Karnataka government's decision to invite Kannada litterateur Banu Mushtaq to inaugurate the Dasara festivities this year, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday underscored the importance of tolerance and coexistence.
He urged people to strive for unity in diversity.
Speaking at the award presentation ceremony for the Vaddarse Raghurama Shetty Social Justice Journalism Award for the calendar year 2024 and the Environment and Development Journalism Award for the calendar years 2017 to 2023, Siddaramaiah said Kannada author Banu Mushtaq is the Booker prize winner.
“People who opposed her selection went to the High Court and the Supreme Court. Their pleas were rejected at both the places,” he said, adding the Dasara inauguration is not a religious matter, but a cultural one. "
"Further, this (Dasara) is the state festival.”
Noting that India is home to various faiths and castes, the CM said, "We must have tolerance for other faiths and we should live and prosper together. We must strive for unity in diversity."
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.
PM Modi, myself don't have 'wife issue': Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi (PTI): In a friendly banter, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and he didn’t have "the wife issue", as the Congress MP emphasised that everyone has learnt from women in their lives.
Participating in a debate in the Lok Sabha on the three bills introduced for amendments to the women's quota law and setting up a delimitation commission, Gandhi said women are a driving force in the national imagination and national perspective.
"All of us in this room have been influenced, taught, and have learnt a lot from women in our lives – from mothers, sisters, wives," Gandhi said.
"Of course, the prime minister and myself don't have the wife issue, so we don't get that input, but we have our mothers and sisters," he said while referring to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju's light-hearted remark that he got a scolding at home as he did not pen a poem for his wife like Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal did.
Gandhi also lauded his sister and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi's speech in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
"Yesterday, I was watching my sister achieve in five minutes what I have not been able to do in 20 years of my political career – make Amit Shah Ji smile," Gandhi said to peals of laughter.
