UDUPI : Senior Congress leader and former chief minister M Veerappa Moily said that there was no proposal before the party to ban Bajrang Dal in Karnataka if elected to power in the state. Moily was reacting to queries by media persons in Udupi on Wednesday in the aftermath of protests by many sections against the Congress manifesto mentioning a ban on Bajrang Dal and Popular Front of India (PFI).
Moily said that the proposal by Congress would have been made on the backdrop of the Supreme Court directing all states and UTs to register cases against those making hate speeches. “A State Government cannot ban any organisation. KPCC president DK Shivakumar will clarify it,’’ he added.
“The BJP, which adores former Union Home Minister late Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, should remember that he had banned the RSS after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. But the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru had revoked the ban order and had said that any organisations can not be banned like that as it would dent the democratic spirit of the people,” he added.
“Our manifesto unveiled on Tuesday stated that if any organisation be it PFI or Bajrang Dal engage in damaging the peaceful atmosphere in society, then they may have to be banned,” he added.
Later, speaking to reporters, AICC spokesperson Gourav Vallabh said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi by comparing Lord Hanuman to Bajrang Dal has humiliated the religious sentiments of the people. “The Prime Minister should apologise,” the Congress leader said.