Mangaluru: Mangaluru south block Congress party workers’ convention took place at Townhall in Mangaluru on Saturday, July 16.
Senior leader of the party, Mallikarjuna Kharge appreciated the initiative taken by MLA J R Lobo to hold such convention and said, “This is a first block level party workers’ convention in the city. Such conventions are necessary to strengthen the party. I urge the present KPCC working president Dinesh Gundurao to hold such conventions at the block levels”.
Referring to the newly named road which was inaugurated, he said, “The new road has been named after former MLA and Minister Blasius D’Souza and it is an honour to him for his contribution to the city. We need to recognise the good work done by the leaders. We commemorated Dr B R Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversory, who had drafted our constitution. Constitution is a holy book to every citizen.”
Hailing Nehru he said, “Nehru had given various portfolios to Ambedkar even though he was not from Congress which shows large-heartedness of Nehru”.
He lashed out at BJP and RSS and said, “Today BJP has been teaching us patriotism. They have been asking what Congress did in 70 years and also allege that Congress has looted the nation. If it was true, under whose tenure did several developmental works take place? Ports, bridges and several other projects were implemented due to the continuous efforts of Srinivas Mallya in the city. It was during the UPA rule Food security bill, MGNREGA, Right to education were launched. Even in the state, rice is given at Rs 3 for the poor. Even the land reforms of Indira Gandhi have benefitted over 3 lakh people, but those beneficiaries are not with us as they are misled by RSS and BJP”.
He also criticised Modi for his foreign tours and said, “Modi says that thousands of people gather to listen to his speech during his visits. Doctors and engineers got their education as Congress government started various medical and engineering colleges from the past. Now they are all abroad and support Modi there”. He also criticised Modi for his poor foreign policy citing his visit to Pakistan and Nawaz Sharif.
“BJP has excellent marketing strategy. But we lagged behind in taking credit for whatever we did and did not publicise it. The present BJP government has completed 26 months in power, but their promise of bringing back black money and creating 2 crore job opportunities are still a dream. This government is anti-poor. They say GDP has increased to 7.5 per cent, but GDP cannot fill the stomach. Food and education are important. When UPA was in power, per barrel of crude oil used to cost 120 dollars and petrol was sold at Rs 67 per litre. Currently crude oil is priced at 28 dollars per barrel, but the price of petrol remains at Rs 67. The centre has earned a profit fof Rs 1.80 lac crore by the difference. During the times of drought, the Centre did not waive waive the loans of farmers even after repeated requests. When UPA was in charge of the Centre, Rs 72,000 crore of farmers’ loans were waived off,” claimed Kharge.
The senior Congress leader also called upon to stop BJP from making provocative statements against other religions. He also urged the ministers to support Anti-superstition bill to eradicate social evils.
KPCC president Gundurao said that Congress mainly focuses on poor and backward communities. He also defended K J George and said that he would personally ask the CM to drop George from the Cabinet if BJP would produce one single piece of evidence.
“George has nothing to do with DySP Ganapathi’s suicide. BJP is not speaking anything about DySP Kallapa’s suicide because one of their leader’s close aides is involved in the case. There are a lot of leaders who have criminal cases against them. Let them resign first,” he said.
Energy Minister D K Shivakumar praised J R Lobo and said that he is one of the best five MLAs in the state and hoped that Congress will come to power in 2018 elections too.
Rajya Sabha MP Oscar Fernandes was honoured on the occasion. District in-charge minister Ramanath Rai presided over the programme.
Minister U T Khader, MLC Ivan D’Souza, MLA Abhaychandra Jain, MLA Mohiuddin Bava and others were present.
