Congress believes in the Hindutva of Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda: DK Shivakumar
Bengaluru, Nov 30: Congress Karnataka unit president D K Shivakumar on Monday said Hinduism is no one's property and the party believes in the Hindutva of Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda, and in protecting the interest of people belonging to all communities.
"Ours is Mahatma Gandhi's Hindutva, Vivekananda's Hindutva...Hinduism is no one's property....India's tradition, culture is the wealth that belongs to all of us .
We (Congress) will protect and safeguard the interest of everyone as said in our constitution," Shivakumar told reporters in response to a question about recent developments regarding inter-faith marriages and Hindutva politics.
"Protecting the constitution is our commitment and our stand," he added.
Shivakumar had convened a meeting of senior leaders of the party today on developments in the state and strengthening the Congress as an organisation.
Shivakumar said booth and panchayat level committees will be formed in the coming days towards organising the party and to make Congress a cadre based party.
The booth committees will be called "Praja Pratinidhi" and it will have representation from across sections of the society.
"We will implement it during the upcoming gram panchayat elections itself," he said.
The Karnataka State Election Commission on Monday announced polls to 5,762 gram panchayats in the state in two phases on December 22 and 27, and the model code of conduct has come into immediate effect.
Welcoming the announcement of the polls, Shivakumar said "For the gram panchayat election we are forming nine teams.All our leaders will be part of it.
However senior they (leaders) are, they will visit various parts of the state from district to assembly level.
MLAs have been given responsibility of neighbouring constituencies," he said.
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EC seeks BJP's response on Opposition charge of PM Modi violating model code
New Delhi (PTI): Taking cognisance for the first time of a model code violation allegation against a prime minister, the Election Commission on Thursday asked the BJP to respond to complaints filed by opposition parties wherein they have accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of delivering a divisive and defamatory speech in Rajasthan's Banswara.
At the same time, the poll panel also asked the Congress to respond to complaints filed by the BJP against the main opposition party's president Mallikarjun Kharge and its senior leader Rahul Gandhi regarding their respective remarks.
In its letter addressed to BJP President J P Nadda, the Election Commission asked him to respond by Monday to complaints filed by the Congress, CPI and CPI (ML) regarding the remarks made by Modi on April 21 in Banswara.
It also asked Nadda to bring to the notice of all star campaigners of the party to "set high standards of political discourse and observe provisions of model code of conduct in letter and spirit".
Officials said it is the first time that the panel has taken cognisance of a complaint against any prime minister. The Election Commission has invoked provisions of the Representation of the People Act to hold party presidents as the first step to rein in star campaigners.
It wrote a similarly-worded letter separately to the Congress president with regard to allegations levelled by the BJP against him and Gandhi.
The letters from the EC to the two-party presidents did not directly name either Modi, Gandhi or Kharge, but the representations received by it were attached to the respective letters and they contained details of allegations against the three leaders.
In its complaint to the EC, the Congress said that Modi in his speech had alleged that Congress wanted to redistribute the wealth of the people to Muslims and that the opposition party won't even spare the 'mangalsutra' of women.
The BJP, on the other hand, had written to EC that Gandhi levelled malafide and utterly sinister allegations against Modi during a speech in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
It also accused Kharge of violating the model code by claiming that he was not invited to the Ram temple consecration ceremony due to discrimination against SCs and STs.
