Congress calls for statewide stir

Bengaluru: Congress party in the state has given a statewide stir against KS Eshwarappa the BJP leader and state Rural Development and Panchayat Raj minister. After the Congress party picked up a debate over the remarks of Eshwarappa stating that "a day will come when we will hoist the Bhagava Dhwaja on the Red Fort…" in the heat of the hijab issue.

The Congress party had gone on to hold a debate over the issue on the floor of both houses of the legislature and had stalled the official business at both houses for two days on Friday and Saturday. In the din, the Congress party had put the hijab issue on the backburner. Today the Congress state leadership has decided to intensify the stir against Eshwarappa and take the stir to the roads from the floor of the house.

According to the president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Party DK Shivakumar, "Eshwarappa's statement was very vehement and inflammatory and outright anti-national in nature. We had pressed the government to sack him or the BJP must remove him from the ministerial berth. But both have not taken any action. Coming from a senior member of the ministry such statements were serious and may have wide-ranging ramifications. So we have decided to take it to the people" Shivakumar stated.

Leader of the opposition in the Assembly S Siddaramiah also echoed the statement of Shivkumar and wanted Eshwarappa to resign from the post of ministry and tender an apology to the people of Karnataka.

In his statement to the Assembly on Saturday late at night over the issue, Eshwarappa had appealed to the opposition to allow the business of Assembly normally and his statement was blown out of context. His statement did not mean any disrespect to the national flag but the opposition was trying to leverage it to weaken the government. The BJP however has given a twist to the entire episode. The Congress party has run out of steam over the issue of hijab, which is still raging in the state. The Congress party has understood that it cannot debate anymore on the Hijab issue as it cuts the party both ways. If they speak in support of the Hijab ban they will lose their traditional Muslim vote bank and if they speak against the Hijab ban they will lose the majority Hindu votes say senior functionaries of BJP.