The battle between the BJP and Congress in Karnataka became more heated on Thursday after BJP state president B.Y. Vijayendra hit out at Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar for being seen as insulting women by holding a cabinet meeting when no women ministers were present. Vijayendra said it was the first time in Karnataka’s history that a cabinet meeting had no women ministers.
Vijayendra told media representatives that women constitute nearly 50 per cent of the population both in Karnataka and India and therefore deserve equal representation in political leadership and decision-making. He also criticised the Congress party for what he saw as a contradiction between its public promises of empowerment for women as well as its political actions in government. He said women ministers in the cabinet were not in place and the government was not doing enough for women, he said.
The BJP leader also claimed that the Congress has always opposed measures to promote the role of women in politics. On women’s reservation, Vijayendra said, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted to increase the representation of women in the political sphere of India, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opposed it. He also said that the current Karnataka government’s composition and decisions show that the party has no longer been committed to gender equality.
Vijayendra also expressed concern about the recent cabinet expansion in Karnataka. He claimed that in the first place, the name of a woman was discussed and proposed for a ministerial position, but was discarded at the last minute. This decision is sending a bad message to women across the state, he said, and is a public humiliation. He accused Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar of not fulfilling expectations of women in government and said many women in Karnataka were disappointed that there was no woman minister in the cabinet.
Vijayendra also aimed at Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge for comments made against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The BJP leader fired back at both Chief Minister Shivakumar and Priyank Kharge for saying they would ban the RSS if they had the power and evidence to do so. He questioned the claim that the RSS was doing something wrong and asked the government to prove it.
Vijayendra accused Priyank Kharge of focusing too much on the RSS and not enough on development issues in his constituency and on his ministerial responsibilities. He said the minister should focus on education, infrastructure, public services, and law and order rather than repeatedly going after the RSS in his public statements. Kharge should have a separate department to discuss the RSS if that was his primary concern, he said, in a sarcastic reply.
The BJP leader also said that even during the tenure of senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge as Union Home Minister, no move was made to ban the RSS. He questioned how Priyank Kharge could now claim that the organisation should face such action and repeated his challenge to the Congress government.
The remarks will further fuel the political contest between the BJP and the Congress in Karnataka, and the conversation about women's representation, governance and ideological differences will continue to dominate the state’s politics.
