Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 15: A Punjab court has summoned the Congress party national president Mallikarjun Kharge in a ₹ 100 core defamation case based on the party’s manifesto in the recently-concluded Karnataka state Assembly elections.
The Sangrur district court issued the summons on Monday on a complaint from Hitesh Bhardwaj, the president of an outfit called “Bajrang Dal Hindustan,” for the party equating Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of the Sangh-affiliated Vishwa Hindu Parishad, with the banned Popular Front of India (PFI), an Islamic outfit, which was banned by the centre last year for its alleged links with some terrorist organisations.
During the recently-concluded Karnataka assembly elections, the Congress in its manifesto compared Bajrang Dal with “anti-national organisations like SIMI and Al-Qaeda”, the petitioner said.
Naming the Bajrang Dal, the Congress in its manifesto promised to ban organisations that promote “enmity or hatred, whether among majority or minority communities.”
“The Congress Party is committed to take firm and decisive action against individuals and organisations spreading hatred amongst communities on grounds of caste or religion. We believe that law and Constitution is sacrosanct and cannot be violated by individuals and Organisations like Bajrang Dal, PFI or others promoting enmity or hatred, whether among majority or minority communities,” the Congress manifesto, called ‘Sarva Janangada Shanthiya Thota’ (peaceful garden of all communities), read, adding that the party, if voted to power in the state, will take ‘decisive action’ as per law, including imposing a ban on them.
Outgoing Karnataka minister CN Ashwathnarayan, who retained his seat in the Malleshwaram constituency, on result day challenged the Congress to ban the Bajrang Dal, which is often linked with vigilantism, violence and moral policing. “How dare they talk about banning Bajrang Dal. Let them try. We will show what we can do,” he said.
During the electioneering, however, the Congress was forced to come out with clarifications about the ban on Bajrang Dal in the face of massive backlash from the BJP campaigners. The Congress had clarified that the party was not planning to ban the outfit because a state had no jurisdiction to ban an organisation like it as only the Centre was empowered to take such action.
But the party had also hit back at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi who launched his election campaign in Karnataka with “Bajrangbali ki Jai” slogan accusing him of “hurting religious sentiments” of devotees by equating Lord Hanuman with the Bajrang Dal, and demanded an apology from him. Soon after it was clear that the Congress was headed for a comfortable win, party workers taunted the BJP and the right wing by turning up at party officers dressed as Bajrangbali Hanuman.
