BENGALURU: Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah on Friday played ‘Good cop, bad cop’ as he poured out sympathy for Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and trashed him in the same breath. However, the BJP jumped to the CM’s defence. Siddaramaiah lashed out at the Prime Minister for first ignoring Karnataka’s plight and then snubbing his own party’s leaders. “...PM Modi deliberately ignoring Yediyurappa and humiliating him on the stage is equivalent to insulting Kannadigas. I condemn this,” said Siddaramaiah. He then went on to deem Yediyurappa a weak chief minister.
“Yediyurappa on Thursday said the state has received only Rs 1,500 crore from the Centre despite asking for Rs 36,000 crore. The PM should at least address this issue seriously,” he added. While the Congress leader questioned the need for PM to politicise a speech in front of children, the BJP replied saying, “The Prime Minister defended the Citizenship Amendment Act and did not seek votes for BJP while addressing children. CAA has been passed by the Parliament and is now an Act. It is not just his but our responsibility too to inform children about it. Calling this politicisation exposes Siddaramaiah’s lack of political understanding,” said Laxman Savadi, Deputy Chief Minister. Reacting to PM Modi’s allegation that the Congress is reluctant to talk against Pakistan and is opposing the Parliament, Siddaramaiah said, “East Pakistan was liberated as Bangladesh was under Indira Gandhi. Pakistan was beaten in a battle and 90,000 of its soldiers surrendered. All of this was done during Congress government, where was Modi then?” he asked.