BENGALURU: At a time when the Congress government led by Siddaramaiah has issued guidelines for implementation of the five guarantees, a video clip of Agriculture Minister N Cheluvarayaswamy went viral, in which he termed the guarantees “cheap popularity” with an agenda of winning elections.
He was candid about it at one of his recent press conferences, and came as an embarrassment for the Congress government. Interestingly, none including Siddaramaiah and his cabinet colleagues have replied to his remark, “Results (winning the polls) were inevitable so that we could deliver the goods only if our government came to power. So, we went with cheap popularity schemes regardless of the repercussions. Whether Siddaramaiah likes it or not, willingly or unwillingly, we had to accept these and move on.”
He had also claimed that the guarantees were discussed across the country and within Congress party circles on the lines that “promising freebies was not a good development”. But on Wednesday, Cheluvarayaswamy retracted his statement, dubbing it a “non-issue” when the Congress government is implementing all the guarantees it promised in the run-up to the assembly polls.
“Have not we (Congress) implemented the guarantees that we promised? But there was a feeling among the people that it is too much, and a situation like Tamil Nadu (where freebies are a norm) may prevail. Has the BJP implemented any of the freebies? Let them make the video clip viral or do anything else they want to do,” he shot back at reporters.
This criticism of Congress policies by the Nagamangala MLA found resonance among BJP sympathisers. “Winning the election is important by throwing false hopes at the public using the state budget in an unsustainable way... Not for development but for freebies. Every person has paid taxes. It could have been used for upgrading government hospitals since hospitals are used by everyone... It could be used for upgrading schools...,” said a social media user.