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Bengaluru, Aug 8: Congress is confused on the Ram Mandir issue and in dilemma to take a firm stand fearing loss of Muslim or Hindu votes, according to BJP leader and Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi.

"Congress opposed BJP's stand on constructing Ram Mandir in Ayodya, it called Lord Ram fictional and even decided to break the Ramsetu. Now, Congressmen are speaking the other way. Congress cannot think beyond vote bank politics which is in its DNA itself. Congressmen think that they are born to be in power," he said while speaking to media persons. 

He said that BJP is all for constructing a grand Ram Mandir peacefully and legally, due to its conviction and not for politics. Same was the case with the revocation of Article 370 for Jammu & Kashmir. Anti-national activities have comparatively come down now. 

Some people do not want everything going smoothly in the country, and Congress and Asaduddin Owaisi are among them, Joshi opined, adding that the Congress is merely frustrated.

Bengaluru, Jul 28: Several state Congress leaders, including its President D K Shivakumar, among others, were detained by police as they tried to march towards Raj Bhavan here against the alleged attempts by BJP to topple the party's government in Rajasthan.

Shivakumar, along with Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah, state Congress Working President Eshwar Khandre, Salim Ahmed among others were stopped by the police midway as they marched from KPCC office towards Raj Bhavan.

Congress leaders then staged a dharna at the place where they were stopped. Addressing the gathering, Shivakumar accused the BJP of trying to "murder" democracy by destabilizing and removing elected governments.

"We wanted to protest against it and submit a memorandum to the President through the Governor," but the Karnataka government by using police was not letting them proceed towards Raj Bhavan, he said. "Despite our being a peaceful protest, the police stopped us," he said.

Siddaramaiah, echoing similar views, said peaceful protests against injustice was the right of every citizen. Alleging that the BJP was attempting to destabilise and remove the elected government in Rajasthan as it did in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, he said the Governor's office there (Rajasthan) was being 'misused'.

The Governor was working like an agent of the central government, he charged. He said, despite repeated appeals by the Rajasthan cabinet, the Governor there had not convened the assembly session, for the floor test to take place and for Congress to prove its majority. Police subsequently detained Shivakumar and some other Congress leaders and took them to a nearby police station.

They were later released. Meanwhile, as the Congress' protest amid Covid19 pandemic did not follow social distancing norms, Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar hit out at that party's leaders. In a tweet Sudhakar said, for Congress leaders getting publicity was more important than social concerns.