Bengaluru :  Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has taken a jibe at BJP National President Amit Shah by stating that  "We have the capability to douse the fire which  Shah may  ignite  by  vesting the state any number of times."

Speaking to reporters after receiving the Man of the Year Award conferred  by the Press Club here on December 31, Sunday, Siddaramaiah said Karnataka is a land of harmony where the BJP leaders are trying to sow the seeds of hatred through communalism. But people of the state will not give scope for this, he added.

The State government is striving to build a land of equality as  per the aspirations of the great Sufi saints and Sharanas  who lived in this land in the past. There is no room for  communal or caste hated here, he declared.

Politics needs good people :  "Good people, whoever they may be, can enter politics, there is nothing wrong in it." The Chief Minister said while reacting to actor Rajanikanth's decision to enter politics.  He also greeted people of the state on the occasion of New Year.

 

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Shimla (PTI): A delegation of the Himachal Congress Minority Morcha apprised the party's central leaders on Thursday of the atmosphere of fear created in the state by targeting a particular community and staging demonstrations near mosques.

The delegation led by Iqbal Mohammad, president of the state Congress Minority Morcha, also comprised imams of various mosques. It met with Congress general secretary K C Venugopal and its Minority Morcha national president Imran Pratapgarhi in New Delhi.

In a statement here, the state Congress Minority Morcha said the situation has become tense due to demonstrations by Hindu outfits in front of mosques and efforts were being made to vitiate the atmosphere and instill fear among Muslims.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu is trying to take people of all religions along but some elements are trying to spoil the atmosphere and malign the government, it added.

According to the statement, Venugopal spoke to the chief minister over the phone over the issue.

Ten people were injured during a protest demanding the demolition of a portion of a mosque in Shimla's Sanjauli area last week. In Mandi, police used water cannons on protestors demanding the demolition of an unauthorised portion of a mosque in the town.

On Tuesday, residents of Kasumpti in Shimla submitted a memorandum to demolish a mosque in the area and similar demands are also coming in from Sunni and other areas in the state.

A dispute between a barber from the minority community and a local businessman in the Malyana area in the suburbs of Shimla on August 30 turned into a communal issue with Hindu groups demanding the demolition of unauthorised mosques and residents calling for the identification and verification of outsiders coming in the state.