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Launching a scathing attack on Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, Bharatiya Janata Party National Secretary said on Monday that it is "reprehensible and unfortunate" that the Congress leader has talked about changing the constitution.
"It is reprehensible and unfortunate that Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, leader of the Congress and INDI alliance and closest to the Gandhi family, is talking about changing the Constitution by snatching the reservation given to SC, ST and OBC brothers and giving it to Muslims," he told ANI. Calling it a "conspiracy" by the Congress-led Karnataka government, he added that the BJP would not let reservations be taken away. However, DK Shivakumar has hit back at the BJP amid the escalating row over his alleged remarks on the Constitution, accusing the former of misquoting him and spreading fake news. Addressing the controversy, Shivakumar asserted, "I am a sensible, senior politician, more so than Mr Nadda. I have been in the Assembly for the last 36 years. I have basic common sense. I casually said there would be changes after various judgements. As per the quota for backward classes, reservation has been given. I never said we are going to change the Constitution." The Deputy CM clarified his stance, refuting the BJP's interpretation of his statement. "Whatever they are quoting is wrong. They are miscarrying it. We are a national party--it is our party that brought the Constitution to this country," he emphasised. He further said that he will be initiating a breach of privilege notice, "I will take a breach of privilege on this. I will fight a case. They are misquoting me." He further accused the BJP of a deliberate campaign to mislead, stating, "The BJP always tries to misguide the country... They are peddling fake news." The controversy erupted after Shivakumar made a statement at an event on Sunday where he spoke about a bill that would provide a four per cent reservation to minorities and other backward classes in public contracts in the state and purportedly said that the "Constitution will be changing." Earlier today, BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad also attacked the Karnataka DCM and the Congress, accusing them of pursuing "Muslim appeasement" under the guise of altering the Constitution. Prasad, while questioning the remarks asked, "What does this mean? That constitution will be changed if needed... Now, he claims that he is being misquoted... Religion-based reservation is not permissible in our Constitution... Where will this Muslim appeasement politics go?" (ANI)
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