Congress workers took out a protest rally in Belagavi on Saturday, demanding that Skill Development Union Minister Anant Kumar Hegde be removed from the Union Cabinet for his anti-Constitution statements.
They said that his apology given in Parliament was not enough.
The protesters walked to the Deputy Commissioner’s office shouting slogans against the Minister and demanded his expulsion from the Ministry. They burnt an effigy of Mr. Hegde, who also represents a part of Belagavi district in the Lok Sabha. They shouted slogans at the Rani Channamma Circle against the Minister and vowed to continue the agitation till he is sacked from the Ministry.
They said that Mr. Hegde has been saying that his party will change the Constitution, to drop the word, Secular, from it. He has also been making some statements said to be against the spirit of the Constitution that guarantees equal treatment to different groups of people, they added. When the Opposition raised the issue in Parliament, he only said that he would seek an apology if his statement had hurt anyone. But he did not say that he had made a “wrong statement” or that his statement was “far from truth”, they said.
Mr. Hegde has also been spewing venom against the minorities and the deprived classes. He should be expelled from the Union Cabinet, Vinay Navalagatti, Congress Rural unit president, said in a memorandum to the President.
