BENGALURU: The Congress held a massive meeting at the Palace Grounds on Sunday to felicitate Rajya Sabha MP Nasir Hussain, who was elevated to the Congress Working Committee recently. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy CM DK Shivakumar and other senior Congress leaders were in full attendance. “Nasir Hussain started off as a student leader in St Philomena’s College and Manasagangotri in Mysuru, and continued as one in Jawaharlal Nehru University,” said Siddaramaiah.
Focusing on the spirit of democracy and attacking the BJP, Siddaramaiah said, “Pluralism is the lifeline of Indian culture and the essence of Indian soil. The destruction of India’s pluralism means the destruction of our Constitution. There is a plan to destroy India’s pluralistic culture for thousands of years. Indian pluralism and Constitution are safe in the hands of Congress.”
He said, “The BJP, which started programmes like Make in India, Skill India, StartUp India, is now shocked by the name ‘India’ and is changing the country to ‘Bharat’. We are the ones who ran for Bharat Jodo Yatra.” Shivakumar spoke about the atmosphere of fear in Karnataka before May. “Before the Congress took over, people were living in fear, now they are living fearlessly."
"The BJP government has filed false cases against innocent minorities and the poor, we will discuss these with legal experts. The minorities and the deprived can now heave a sigh of relief, our government will not allow injustice. We had stated in our election promise that we would cancel the ‘Nagpur Education Policy’ and bring in a Karnataka Education Policy, and have taken it up accordingly. We need your blessings for the Lok Sabha elections as well.’’
Others who participated in the meeting were former Union minister Salman Khurshid, leaders from Bihar and Maharashtra, CM’s political adviser Naseer Ahmed, Rajya Sabha members, cabinet ministers and MLAs.