Karnataka Chief Minister lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi a day after the latter accused Siddaramaiah government of corruption. Siddaramaiah claims Modi to be unfit for Prime Ministership, as a response to Modi’s allegations during the conclusion of the Parivartana yatra. He also alleged that Prime Minister was facilitating corruption.
“PM Modi has only peddled lies about our government. He didn’t speak like a Prime Minister. He is facilitating and supporting corruption. In my opinion, he is morally unfit to be Prime Minister,” Siddaramaiah said on Monday.
Though PM Modi limited his allegations to Congress government as an entity, Siddaramaiah charged directly at the Prime Minister, typically placing himself as the adversary to take on directly in the upcoming Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018. He didn’t hold back to attack by saying that the countdown to dethrone Modi government had begun.
“How many ever rallies he (PM Modi) holds and how many ever communal riots Amit Shah engineers, people of Karnataka have already made up their minds to vote Congress back to power. The countdown for Modi government has in fact begun,” Siddaramaiah said.
The Karnataka chief minister asked PM Modi’s reticence over corruption charges against B S Yeddyurappa, Mahadayi row, Ananth Kumar Hegde’s comments over amending the constitution.
“Karnataka contributes 38 percent to country’s total IT & BT exports. We stand number 1 in silk production and investments. Karnataka was the first state to announce a multisector startup policy, introduce online marketing in 157 APMCs which has led to 38 percent increase in farmer incomes,” Siddaramaiah said citing a NITI aayog report, in an effort to puncture PM Modi’s questions over development in Karnataka under the Congress regime.
PM Modi in his speech had attributed Siddaramaiah government as a “10 percent commission government”, a claim that Siddaramaiah, accompanied by a host of ministers including U T Khader, K J George, Roshan Baig, D K Shivakumar, Ramalinga Reddy, strongly objected in a press conference on Monday.
“Taxes collected from Karnataka amount to 9.47 percent of total tax- the third highest across the country- but we only get 4.65 percent as our share,” Siddaramaiah said countering claims of PM Modi that the union government had given the state close to Rs 2 lakh crore.
“According to 14th finance commission, in the last three years, Karnataka should have received Rs 95,200 crores but we have received only Rs 84500 crore. They (BJP) lie about giving Rs 2 lakh crore,” the Karnataka Chief Minister said.