SRIRANGAPATTANA: Ahead of the impending Karnataka state assembly elections, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday raised questions against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stand against corruption and asked him to clean up his own party first.
“He (Prime Minister Modi) talks about corruption whenever he visits Karnataka, but does not notice his own stage. On one side there is an ex-chief minister (B.S. Yeddyurappa) who has spent time in prison,” Rahul said while addressing a public rally here.
“If you are actually against corruption, why are you not instigating an investigation against these ministers,” he added.
Branding the Prime Minister a liar, Rahul took a potshot at the former for not fulfilling his promise of waiving farmers’ loan.
“The Prime Minister cannot waive farmers’ loans. I went to office and raised the matter to him, but I got no response from him. I raised the same question to Mr Siddaramaiah and the other Congress Ministers in Karnataka, and within ten days, he sanctioned Rs. 8,000 crores to waive the loans,” he said.
Claiming that the Janata Dal (Secular) (JDS) party has become a wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he said, “Earlier, the ‘S’ in JDS used to stand for ‘Secular’, but since they have become a B-team for BJP, JDS means Janata Dal ‘Sangh Parivaar’”.
With elections for the 224-member Karnataka assembly on the horizon, the state has witnessed frequent visits by national leaders, from both the Congress and the BJP.
While the ruling Congress is trying to retain power in Karnataka, the BJP is eyeing to regain the southern state.