The BJP leaders launched a fresh round of tirade against the Congress, after MLC B. K. Hariprasad’s remarks that “those who term us (the Congress) as Tipu Sultan’s followers were bootlickers of the British” ruffled their feathers.
“When the Congress leaders were involved in the freedom movement, those in the RSS had accepted their rule and were subservient to the British,” Mr. Hariprasad told presspersons in Hubballi.
He was responding to queries about some leaders of the BJP, like Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, criticising the Congress over the assurance of revocation of the hijab ban.
“The BJP leaders say we are practising minority appeasement. Should we say they are appeasing the majority? The Congress has always been with the common man and the poor and the marginalised. The BJP, on the other hand, has no concern for the plight of farmers, women, and the common man. It keeps on winning polls based on spreading lies and violence. While we are protecting the Constitutional values of equality, fraternity, and equal opportunity, the BJP is busy dividing society on caste and religion. While we are for caste-based reservation and socio-economic study of various castes based on caste census, the BJP’s think tanks who live in Nagpur have opposed it. That is the difference between us and them,” he said.
He said that he was in favour of revoking the hijab ban. “Issues like attire and food are matters of personal choice. I also feel that while women can be allowed to wear burqa outside the college, they should be allowed to wear hijab in the classroom,” he said.
Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje launched a counter attack at Mr. Hariprasad by wondering what did he know about the British Raj? “We know who were the bootlickers. If you try to dig into history, your face will get blackened,” she remarked.
Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly R. Ashok slammed Mr. Hariprasad and stated that the Congress leader had become desperate.
He said: “The Congress was founded by the British. Does it mean that the Congressmen have licked the shoes of the British? Trained under the British, the Congressmen worked under them. Never in the history of the BJP, a British person had became its president.”
