Questioning the silence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the “misuse” of Ram Mandir donations, KPCC president B.K. Hariprasad has sought to know the difference between Mahmud of Ghazni who invaded India for 17 times and Mr. Amit Shah and Mr. Modi who, he said, are “looting” people on the pretext of building Ram Mandir.

Addressing a press conference in Hubballi on Wednesday, Mr. Hariprasad said that as per the Constitution, there is no official religion as such.

However, these leaders (Mr. Shah, Mr. Modi) who are speaking as if they have taken contract of a religion has not spoken a word on the embezzlement of public donations for Ram Mandir, he said.

Defending Home Minister Priyank Kharge on the issue of him writing a letter to RSS, Mr. Hariprasad said that there is nothing wrong in what the Home Minister has asked. Everything in the country should function under the framework of the Constitution, he said.

Even the vendor doing his petty business on the road should register and what problem the RSS has on registering itself, he asked.

To a query, he said that the party is clear that those who are in favour of RSS will have no place in the Congress because the RSS had opposed the tricolour, the Constitution and was always against pluralist society, while the soul of India is pluralism.

Mr. Hariprasad said that the BJP came to power promising the people good days (Acche Din) and subsequently, talked of Amrit Kal and what the people have finally got is Rahu Kal (ominous time).

Questioning the contribution of the 19 BJP MPs to North Karnataka, Mr. Hariprasad recalled Union Minister Pralhad Joshi’s announcement before parliamentary elections about clearances being given for Kalasa Banduri Nala project and said that they are unable to find the clearances given for the project even after two years.

He said that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced ₹5,300 crore for the Upper Bhadra project before the elections and now, she is not speaking a word about it.

On fuel prices, he said that during the West Asia conflict, fuel prices were increased citing soaring crude oil prices. Now, although the crude oil prices have come down, the Union government has failed to lessen the burden on the people by lowering fuel prices, he said.

On NEET aspirants missing the opportunity to appear for examination, he said that if there was really the problem of traffic jam on the day of the examination, 30,000 students would have been affected not just three.

“People trained in Nagpur are creating such false narratives,” he said.

On Cabinet expansion, he said that it is left to the discretion of the Chief Minister. However, he said that a balanced Cabinet will be formed. He also said that there is nothing wrong in MLAs seeking Ministerial berths.

On Seva Dal, he said that steps are being taken to further strengthen the organisation and already, a few initiatives have been taken up.

On whether the district units will be overhauled in the run-up to the next Assembly elections, he said that preparations are on for the next Assembly elections and various measures, including restructuring the district units, will be done in consultation with all stakeholders.