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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Three central armed police force personnel suspended for playing carrom in TMC office
Kolkata (PTI): The Election Commission suspended three central armed police force personnel after a purported video went viral showing them playing carrom inside a Trinamool Congress (TMC) office at Suri in West Bengal's Birbhum district, a senior official said on Sunday.
A departmental inquiry has been ordered into the matter, he said.
"As of now, these three personnel have been removed from poll duty. We have initiated an inquiry into the incident. The authenticity of the video recording is being checked thoroughly," the poll body official said.
The disciplinary action was triggered by a purported video which went viral on Saturday, showing one personnel playing carrom with three local youths, another standing, and a third seated on a chair inside the TMC office in Suri.
PTI, however, could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.
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This was the second such disciplinary action taken against the central forces deployed in Bengal in the run up to the to the state elections by the poll body in four days for violating commission's guidelines.
On March 25, the EC transferred seven paramilitary personnel deployed on election duty in Murshidabad district out of the state for allegedly attending an iftar party in violation of guidelines.
The jawans, along with two policemen, had allegedly attended an Iftar on March 8 hosted by local TMC leader Samim Sheikh, husband of Aliara Bibi, pradhan of Nimtita gram panchayat in the Samsergunj area of Murshidabad.
Responding to the latest development in Suri, BJP candidate for the segment, Jagannath Chatterjee, condemned the incident, calling it "extremely reprehensible and disappointing."
"It is unclear how and where the central forces are being deployed. If the local administration or police had a role in this carrom game, strict action should be taken against them as well," Chatterjee said.
Congress Birbhum district president Sanjay Adhikari expressed similar concern, saying, "Playing carrom is not a crime, but doing so inside a political party's office is inappropriate."
Responding to the controversy, TMC leader of Birbhum district Malay Mukherjee said, "Those who were working here understand that casually interacting with TMC is not a crime. That is probably why they were talking and playing carrom."
The EC had previously issued directives prohibiting the deployed CAPF from accepting any form of hospitality or participating in social and private gatherings during poll duty while putting in place strict monitoring mechanisms, including GPS tracking and body cameras, to oversee movement and activities of the forces.
