BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday lashed out at the BJP leadership, and claimed that the saffron party is against parliamentary democracy and the Constitution, highlighting that it has not yet selected a Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.
“They are politically bankrupt as they could not select the LoP, which is detrimental to democracy in the parliamentary system and they do not have faith in the Constitution. It is a sad thing that it is for the first time in history that the debate on the budget and the Governor’s speech took place without an LoP,” he told the Assembly, in the absence of BJP MLAs who were suspended.
He also took a dig at the BJP, alleging that its MLAs did not give respect to the Speaker’s chair, following which they were suspended on Wednesday. He alleged that jealousy for the five guarantees the government was rolling out and the people being happy about them, were the reasons for the ‘unruly’ behaviour of tearing off papers and flinging them at the Speaker’s chair.
“I have lost enthusiasm without the Opposition leaders to fight in the Assembly,” he remarked, referring to the BJP and the JDS MLAs boycotting the session on Thursday.
“They were doing more of politics than their duty, as they have no respect for the people’s mandate. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wishes the country to be Congress-free. But I do not anticipate the country or the state being free from the BJP. But I wish that the saffron party never comes to power, as they disturb the social harmony by inciting conflicts on the basis of religion,” he stated.
He claimed that Modi’s popularity was on the decline as it was proven in the May 10 Assembly polls in Karnataka, as most of the Congress MLAs, including himself won by a huge margin, despite the PM coming to the state and campaigning as many as 28 times. “We will win over 20 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls,” he predicted.
HDK also appointed officers
Siddaramaiah also lashed out at former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, as the latter had raised the issue of appointing IAS officers to receive leaders of various political parties, who came to attend the Opposition alliance meeting on July 17 and 18.
“During his swearing-in ceremony as the CM on May 21, 2018, he (Kumaraswamy) had appointed an IAS officer, Y S Patil, to liaison the then JDS national leader Danish Ali,” he stated.
Siddaramaiah claimed that he accorded state guest status to Nirmala Sitharaman and Thaawarchand Gehlot, who had come to the state to attend the BJP National Executive Committee meeting held on April 4, 2015, following the request of the then Union Minister late Ananth Kumar.
Chief Minister refers to TNIE column on budget
During a discussion on the budget in the Assembly, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday mentioned a column in The New Indian Express, in which experts had reviewed his budget. “Despite predictions of difficulties, budget managed prudently by Karnataka government,” he read out the headline from the clipping of the paper. He also mentioned the names of the authors -- Dr R S Deshpande, visiting professor at Social and Economic Change, and Dr Khalil Shaha.