HUBBALLI, BELAGAVI: Congress is filing a complaint with the Election Commission and also exploring legal options to file a case against Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who in a public rally on Wednesday said riots could break out if the Grand Old Party comes to power in Karnataka, said AICC president Mallaikarjun Kharge here on Wednesday.
Stating that Shah is making such remarks in frustration, Kharge asked him to restrain from inciting people. He questioned how the Union home minister could make such statements. “He is creating communal discord between Hindus and Muslims. The meaning of his statement is that BJP will start creating communal violence if it does not come to power,” he alleged.
He said Congress gave education to all. “We have taught Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, who was born after the country’s Independence. In the name of privatisation, they (BJP) have now started selling airports, roads and government undertakings,’’ he alleged.
“Modi, who gave funds to a bogus company of one businessman, is engaged in hosting him wherever he visited,” said Kharge, adding that Modi’s team in Karnataka was busy collecting 40 per cent commission from civil contractors. Modi must answer this, he added.
Around 25 lakh youth in Karnataka are jobless. Ironically, at the same time, there are over two lakh vacant posts in the government. Inflation has gone through the roof in the last two years, while Modi is making poor people miserable by imposing GST on every commodity, he alleged.
He said Modi and Shah were visiting the state months before the election under the pretext of inaugurations of development works, but each of these functions was converted into a party event and was misused for political campaigning, he charged.
Alleging that institutions are being misused by Modi and Shah, he said that unlike former MP Rahul Gandhi, a BJP MP from Gujarat was not disqualified despite being sentenced by a lower court for over three years and was allowed to continue as an MP for months and was also allowed to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
He refused to reply to a question on retaining the 4% reservation for Muslims that was scrapped by the Basavaraj Bommai government.
MLC Prakash Hukkeri, MLA Ganesh Hukkeri, Laxmanrao Chingale, Veerkumar Patil, Sham Ghatge and other Congress leaders were present.