Mallikarjun Kharge, the leader of the Congress party, was called before a Punjab court today in connection with a defamation case involving the party’s comparison of the youth wing of the Sangh-affiliated Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal, to the outlawed Islamic group Popular Front of India (PFI), in its election manifesto for the Karnataka Assembly.Following a complaint from Hitesh Bhardwaj, the leader of an organisation known as “Bajrang Dal Hindustan,” the Sangrur district court summoned the Congress President.
The petitioner claimed that the Congress likened the Bajrang Dal to “anti-national organisations like SIMI and Al-Qaeda” in its manifesto during the recently-completed Karnataka assembly elections.
In its manifesto, the Congress specifically mentioned the Bajrang Dal when it pledged to outlaw groups that incite “enmity or hatred, whether among majority or minority communities.”
“The Congress Party is dedicated to taking forceful and decisive action against people and groups inciting hatred among groups of people based on their religion or caste. The Congress platform, titled “Sarva Janangada Shanthiya Thota” (peaceful garden of all communities), stated that the party would take “decisive action” as required by law, including banning them, if elected to power in the state.