Lagatar24 Desk
Karnataka, Dec 19: Congress MLAs led by the Karnataka Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah held a protest outside the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha (SVS) in Belagavi after VD Savarkar’s portrait was unveiled inside Karnataka Assembly Hall on Monday.
The protest took place on the first day of the Winter Session of the state assembly at the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi.
Opposition leaders, including former chief minister and the current Leader of the Opposition, Siddaramaiah, led the protest and questioned the need to feature a controversial figure inside the Karnataka assembly. The Congress leaders held up pictures of Jawaharlal Nehru during the protest.
“I am not against putting up anyone’s portrait. The government wants to divert the attention of the people from real issues like law & order. It is not a protest, we demand to put portraits of all national leaders and social reformers (in the Karnataka assembly hall). The speaker has unilaterally decided to put up Veer Savarkar’s portrait in the assembly,” Siddaramaiah said in the Karnataka assembly.
Siddaramaiah in a letter to the Speaker requested the installation of portraits of personalities like Valmiki, Basavanna, Kanaka Dasa, BR Ambedkar, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and others.
Karnataka Congress chief and MLA DK Shivakumar accused the state government of trying to disrupt assembly proceedings through such steps.
Meanwhile, the BJP has hit out against the Opposition protests. “There must be ideological differences but Savarkar is a freedom fighter, then ask Siddaramaiah, whose poster must be put, of Dawood Ibrahim?,” said Union Minister Pralhad Joshi.
