The Congress party promised to take stern action against individuals who instigate hatred on the grounds of caste and religion in its manifesto for the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections. The Bajrang Dal and the Popular Front of India are two organisations that the party has vowed to abolish because they, among other things, break the law and the Constitution and incite racial and ethnic hostility.
The Congress party holds that, regardless of a person’s affiliation with a particular community, the law and the Constitution are inviolable and cannot be disregarded by anyone. The manifesto also includes five guarantees: Gruha Jyothi, Gruha Lakshmi, Anna Bhagya, Yuva Nidhi, and Shakti. In the presence of former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, KPCC President DK Shivakumar, and Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera, party president Mallikarjun Kharge delivered the paper.
The manifesto has faced criticism from some quarters, though. Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, referred to it as a comprehensive Muslim fundamentalist manifesto and charged that the Congress was becoming into a Muslim fundamentalist party. Amit Shah, the union home minister, has urged voters to back the BJP in the polls, saying that every vote for the group will shield the state from the PFI, a banned organisation.
The Ministry of Home Affairs proclaimed the PFI and its affiliates to be a “unlawful association” in September 2022 as a result of investigations by state police units and federal authorities that revealed their involvement in violent acts.