D.K. Shivakumar
| Photo Credit: File Photo
The Congress is not afraid of the protests planned by the BJP on the day of the centenary celebrations of the 1924 Belgaum Congress session, D.K. Shivakumar, Deputy Chief Minister, said in Belagavi on Monday.
“We are in the midst of the centenary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi’s visit to Belagavi to chair the 1924 Belgaum Congress session. It was a session that provided a clear road map to the freedom movement. The celebrations are not a party event. They belong to the world, just as Gandhiji belonged to the world. If someone mistakes it for a party event and plans to protest in Belagavi on the same day, we will not be bothered by it,” he told reporters.
“Why should we be afraid if anyone or any party tries to organise a protest on the day that we are feting a person known as Mahatma or Father of the Nation? We are least bothered. I am not dead. I am still alive, and leading the party. We will organise the celebrations in a way that befits the historic event,” the Dy.CM said.
“Gandhiji led the freedom struggle, gave us a democratic republic, helped us get the national flag and the Constitution. A grateful nation has printed his image on currency notes as we need to remember him every day,” he said.
He said he would respond to Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s criticism of the Congress at a separate event in Channapattana and not in Belagavi.
Published – December 23, 2024 08:22 pm IST