Belagavi: Congress on Monday December 19 boycotted the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting of the Karnataka legislative Assembly in protest against the Speaker and the government for not consulting before hanging portraits of several national figures, including Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, in the Assembly chamber.
Opposition leader Siddaramaiah and KPCC President D. K. Shivakumar held a protest outside the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha earlier in the day. They claimed that decisions had been made unilaterally to install certain portraits inside the House without any discussions or consultation.
It was decided to introduce a Bill to replace the ordinance on the SC/ST quota hike at the BAC, which was attended by Speaker Vishveshwar Hegde Kageri and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai among others, and to take into consideration the Bill already introduced regarding giving additional statutory primacy for the usage of Kannada in administration and the private sector.
It was also decided to set aside time to talk about problems in the north Karnataka region.
