No ban on PFI: KC Venugopal

Belagavi: Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of indulging in a systematic campaign to disturb the state’s peace and harmony, AICC general secretary, K C Venugopal warned on Friday that the government would take strong action against any organisation creating communal tension. 

He however,  ruled out the possibility of  banning the PFI , which the BJP has accused of fanning communal trouble in Karnataka. 

On the contrary, he alleged that  the BJP leaders themselves were sowing seeds of communal hatred in the state and appealed to the people not to allow them to take root.

“Our party’s only aim in the coming election is to defeat the BJP,” he asserted. Mr Venugopal, who was speaking to reporters in Vijayapura, also accused BJP leaders of doing a drama over the Mahadayi dispute and trying to con the people in the process.

Denying  there was any rift among Congress leaders in Vijayapura or the state as a whole, he said the party candidates in the district were expected to win more comfortably this time round.

Earlier, addressing a gathering of Congress party workers, he charged Prime Minister Narendra Modi with dashing the hopes of the youth in the country by his hollow promises of creating crores of jobs, cutting the price of fuel and so on. “It’s because the  Prime Minister has failed to keep  his word that the popularity of his party has faded drastically in his home state as seen in the recent elections,” he cotended, adding caustically, “ The PM's achievement is restricted to his Man Ki Baat.”