Tension over Flag on Shankaracharya statue in Sringeri
Bengaluru: A flag was found atop the canopy over a statue of Sri Adi Shankaracharya in the temple town of Sringeri in Chikkamagaluru district on Thursday, police said.
While the police said it was a flag which did not belong to any political party or religion, local BJP leaders alleged it was that of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI).
"There is a Shankaracharya statue and above it is the gopuram (canopy). The flag was found there. It is neither a party flag nor Islamic flag. It is some blue red and green flag," a police officer said.
The statue is located at the Shankaracharya Circle (road junction) in the town.
He added that some miscreant had thrown it on the gopuram, which got stuck there. "There is no damage to the statue. Morning when we got to know we removed it. An FIR has been registered," he added.
The local BJP leaders lodged a complaint about the mischief. BJP MLA and former minister S A Ramadass too condemned the act.
"It has come to the knowledge that SDPI's flag was put on Shankaracharya's statue. I have asked the officials concerned to arrest the culprit. Our government will not tolerate such anti-social elements," he tweeted, posting a picture of the flag atop the canopy.
Sringeri is one of the four seats of spiritual learning set up by the Adi Shankaracharya about 1,300 years ago. Swami Sri Bharati Teertha is the present Shankaracharya of the Sringeri mutt.
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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.
