Mangaluru : Dakshina Kannada district president of Congress Publicity Committee, Dhananjay Adpangaya, addressing a press meet in the city on Wednesday January 15, stated that the Congress will take counter measures against the BJP’s protest organized at Kanakapura against the erection of the statue of Jesus Christ there, by holding protest driven with the motto, ‘no bloodshed, only harmony’.

“The major purpose of BJP and Hindu organizations in holding the said protest relating to the statue of Jesus Christ at Kapala Betta was to vitiate religious harmony. The way they behave has given rise to mistrust between the Hindus, Muslims and Christians. They try to mix religion in politics for bagging votes. We are preparing to face them politically. We will get support of the people who stand for harmony between all classes of people,” he explained.

When the media persons wanted to know whether his party will organize protest, Adpangaya said holding protest meetings is a method that has become redundant. “We have an idea about how to organize the protest. We will follow that plan. People from all classes, castes, religion and faiths should come together to effectively tackle the BJP and Hindu organizations. We will draw inspirations from the preaching of Gandhi, Nehru, Vivekananda etc when organizing the programme,” he said.

He said that D K Shivakumar, who has been following lofty principles of governance and humanity, had supported the demand of locals to set up a statue of Jesus Christ there as he felt it was just. But sadly the BJP has been trying to harm his reputation on this count, he said. He also pointed out that Swami Vivekananda had addressed the people of USA as brothers and sisters, and Indonesia has allowed Hindus to construct religious structures. He also drew the attention of the media to the fact that Prime Minster Narendra Modi had unveiled the statue of Basavanna in England.

District Congress spokesperson A C Vinayaraj, party leaders Abdul Saleem, Neeraj Paul, Vishwas Kumar Das and others were present.