HUBBALLI: Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar and Union Minister Pralhad Joshi tore into the Congress here on Monday. While Shettar said the Congress would slip into a coma after the Council polls and byelections for two assembly segments, Pralhad Joshi appealed to the voters to show Congress its place for disrespecting democracy and not honouring the people’s mandate.
In a joint press conference, Shettar and Joshi came down heavily on the Congress for “creating stumbling blocks to save its own skin from internal bickering both at the national and state levels.” Joshi charged,
“The Congress always projects the crisis in the party as a crisis of the nation, but it cannot fool the public all the time.” While both the leaders emphasised on increasing BJP’s tally in the upper house for getting crucial bills cleared and good governance, Joshi, who holds the Parliamentary Affairs portfolio, said it was evident from the “ruckus created” by the Opposition parties during the passage of important farm bills in the Rajya Sabha that the Congress, which never thought of the well-being of the farming community, was against the progress of the nation.
Shettar also pointed out that the Congress and JDS in the Legislative Council had stalled the passage of bills pertaining to amendments to the APMC Act, land and labour reforms acts, which are much needed to bring the state out of the Covid-induced distress. The “born to rule” mentality of the Gandhi family has ensured the demise of democracy in the Congress, Joshi charged.
Both leaders came to the rescue of the Central government over the delay in sanctioning relief amount for flood-ravaged Karnataka. They said that the state had been ravaged by floods three times in one season, which had never happened in the past, but the state and Central governments were doing their best in taking up relief and rehabilitation measures.