Belagavi (Karnataka): Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pralhad Joshi Monday hit back at the Congress party who opposed the unveiling of Hindu ideologue VD Savarkar’s portrait in the Karnataka Assembly.
Further, the BJP leader compared today’s Congress party with that of the old one, which participated in the freedom struggle. He said that today’s Congress is “duplicate”.
“Congress is doing appeasement politics. They keep talking about their role in the freedom struggle and their sacrifices but that Congress and this Congress are not the same, what we have now is duplicate Congress,” he added.
Belagavi | VD Savarkar's portrait unveiled in Karnataka Assembly hall. Congress MLAs have staged a protest with LoP Siddaramaiah writing to Speaker to install portraits of personalities like Valmiki, Basavanna, Kanaka Dasa, BR Ambedkar, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and many others. pic.twitter.com/Esgdl8bdgP
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Congress protests outside the Assembly
A controversy broke out in the Karnataka Assembly on its first day of the Winter session, with the Congress leaders protesting outside the parliament. The Congress leaders held images of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel and other freedom fighters during their demonstration.
“They want that our Assembly proceedings should not take place. They want it disrupted. They have brought this photo because we are going to raise a lot of corruption issues against them. They don’t have any development agenda,” said Karnataka Congress chief and MLA DK Shivakumar.
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Meanwhile, the Leader of Opposition said, “It is not a protest, it is our demand to put portraits of all national leaders and social reformers (in the Karnataka Assembly Hall). The Speaker has unilaterally taken a decision to put up Veer Savarkar’s portrait in the Assembly.”
“I am not against putting up of anyone’s portrait. The government wants to divert the attention of the people from real issues like law and order,” accused the LoP.
It is not a protest, it is our demand to put portraits of all national leaders and social reformers (in the Karnataka Assembly Hall). The Speaker has unilaterally taken a decision to put up Veer Savarkar's portrait in the Assembly: LoP in Karnataka Assembly, Siddaramaiah pic.twitter.com/JG5eNa2qVK
— ANI (@ANI) December 19, 2022
Earlier in the day, he said, “Why the portrait of Savarkar in the House now? There is no need for it. Savarkar is a controversial personality.”