A Karnataka MP reaching the Union Cabinet should be a moment of pride for every Kannada speaker. Instead, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah says Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to appoint Pralhad Joshi as Union Education Minister has made Kannadigas hang their heads in shame — and he has laid out exactly why.

The Bilkis Bano defence that defines the charge

Siddaramaiah's indictment pivots on a specific, documented episode. In 2022, the Gujarat government granted remission to 11 men convicted of the gang rape of Bilkis Bano during the 2002 Gujarat riots, citing good conduct. Joshi publicly defended that decision and, in Siddaramaiah's words, 'spoke in favour of the rapists.' The CM argues that a minister with that record — now placed in charge of the country's classrooms — sends an unmistakable signal about whose interests the education portfolio will serve.

Writing in Kannada on 29 July 2026, Siddaramaiah put it bluntly: 'ಇದೊಂದು ರೀತಿ ಊದುವುದನ್ನು ಕೊಟ್ಟು ಬಾರಿಸುವುದನ್ನು ಕೊಂಡು ಬಂದಂತೆ' — loosely, 'it is like trading a flute for a drum': the instrument has changed, the tune has not.

Joshi and Pradhan: 'ideological twins'

The CM frames the cabinet reshuffle not as a change of direction but a change of face. Both Dharmendra Pradhan, the outgoing minister, and Joshi rose through the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Siddaramaiah calls them 'ideological twins' who share the RSS worldview on women, Dalits, the poor, backward communities, Muslims and Christians. 'Only the actor has changed,' he writes. 'The director — the RSS — remains the same, and this actor too will have to follow its script.'

The criticism echoes a well-worn Congress line of attack: that social-sector ministries, especially education, function as transmission belts for majoritarian ideology when led by leaders with deep RSS-ABVP roots. What gives it sharper edges this time is the specific invocation of the Bilkis Bano case — a Supreme Court-scrutinised remission that has remained politically combustible since 2022.

Parliament's role and Siddaramaiah's demand

Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and MP Priyanka Gandhi have already taken the fight to Lok Sabha, attempting to unmask Joshi's record on the floor of the House. Siddaramaiah's post amplifies that parliamentary offensive into a public campaign. 'They can silence him in the House,' he writes, 'but they cannot silence the crores of people of this country.'

The CM closes with a direct demand: if Prime Minister Modi holds even a sliver of concern for teachers and students, he should immediately strip Joshi of the education portfolio and hand it to someone genuinely qualified. The warning is pointed — Joshi, he says, will not need many days before he follows Pradhan out the door.

Whether Parliament or public pressure forces a course correction, the education ministry has now become the sharpest front in the Congress-BJP battle over who India's institutions are ultimately built to serve.