Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President D.K. Shivakumar on Sunday stated that the credit for showing epics like Mahabharatha and Ramayana on Doordarshan goes to the Congress.
When his attention was drawn to the BJP’s move to introduce Bhagavad Gita in schools, Mr. Shivakumar accused the BJP of “dividing the society” by raking up “emotional issues”. On the contrary, Congress party had helped the epics of Hindu religion gain international respect and recognition when Mahabharatha and Ramayana were shown on Doordarshan for years on end by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The message of Mahabharatha and Ramayana had been conveyed to the audiences in the country and abroad during the Congress rule, he said.
He also contended that people were not “stupid” and expressed confidence that they will see through the “designs of the BJP to divide the society”. On the occasion, Mr Shivakumar stated a copule of shlokas from Bhagavad Gita.
Instead, he said the BJP Government should focus on price rise, unemployment and other burning problems the people of the State were facing. Contending that the increasing cost of construction was making it difficult for people to build houses, he claimed that the cost of steel was about ₹90,000 to ₹ 1,00,000 lakh per tonne while a bag of cement was ₹450. “Why isn’t anybody talking about it? What should be the fate of people building small houses?”, he enquired.
Also, a recent survey had showed that the country fares very poorly in the satisfaction index. “This shows that the people of the country are not satisfied,” he said.
He called upon the Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Shobha Karandlaje to use her good offices to secure Minimum Support Price for ragi, paddy and jowar from the Centre instead of attacking the Congress party.
With regard to RSS ideologue Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat’s statement favouring replacement of the tricolour with saffron flag, Mr. Shivakumar said BJP’s national President J.P. Nadda had already told the Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj K.S. Eshwarappa whatever needed to be told on the issue and the Congress party has already protested on the matter in the State Legislature.
He said that he does not want to react to Mr. Bhat’s recent statement in the regard and added that he had already described such people as “anti-nationals”.
