- Saturday, April 27, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of the southern Indian state of Karnataka, which will go to elections on Wednesday (10), has brought a complaint against veteran Indian National Congress leader Sonia Gandhi over her remark that “Congress will not allow anyone to pose a threat to Karnataka’s reputation, sovereignty or integrity”.
The 76-year-old former Congress president made the remark while speaking at a public rally in Hubballi in the state on Saturday (6).
The BJP moved the Election Commission of India saying that Gandhi’s remarks were “divisive” in nature, as per the complaint, the India Today reported. The saffron party, which is in power in Karnataka since 2019, a year after a coalition government of the Janata Dal (Secular) and Congress ran the government after the elections in 2018, requested the poll panel to register a first-information report against Gandhi for making such remarks, the complaint said.
Gandhi, who has been the Congress’s longest-serving president, said Karnataka and the rest of the country will not make progress without getting rid of the ruling party’s “loot, lies, ego and hatred”. She was flanked by her son and former parliamentarian Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former Karnataka chief minister Jagadish Shettar, who recently quit the BJP to join the Congress after being denied an election ticket.
The Congress later shared a tweet in which it said that the Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson “sends a strong message to 6.5 crore Kannadigas.” It posted pictures of her speaking at the public meeting and said, “Congress will not allow anyone to pose a threat to Karnataka’s reputation, sovereignty or integrity”.
CPP Chairperson Smt. Sonia Gandhi ji sends a strong message to 6.5 crore Kannadigas:
"The Congress will not allow anyone to pose a threat to Karnataka's reputation, sovereignty or integrity." pic.twitter.com/W6HjKYWjLa
— Congress (@INCIndia) May 6, 2023
The complaint filed with the election commission said, “Definition of sovereignty is an independent nation. India is a sovereign country and Karnataka is a proud part of it”, the India Today report added.
Shobha Karandlaje, minister of state for agriculture and farmers’ welfare in the Narendra Modi government and a leader from Karnataka, called Gandhi’s statement “shocking and unacceptable”. She filed the complaint and said the Congress veteran violated provisions of the model code of conduct and urged the commission to take stringent action against the latter.
“The meaning of what Congress is saying is that the Congress believes that Karnataka is separate from India. The statement is divisive in nature and it is aimed at dividing the citizens and creating rift between two people of different states. Karnataka is not different from India. This is a shocking statement leading to igniting divisive sentiments,” the complaint copy, which is accessed by India Today, reads.
Indian environment minister Bhupender Yadav slammed the Congress and called Gandhi’s words “anti-national act”.
