From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Oct 25: Former Prime Minister and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda lambasted Prime Minister Narendra Modi was taking all national and statutory institutions under his control and alleged that there was "an undeclared emergency was in effect in the country."
Speaking to presspersons in Hassan on Wednesday, Gowda said the Prime Minister has got a "pliant and trusted" officer from Gujarat cadre to head the Election Commission.
"Not only Election Commission, almost all institutions including the CBI, Reserve Bank of India are headed by people from his state", he said.
The JD(S) National President criticised the Election Commission for delaying announcement of the poll schedule in Modi’s home state of Gujarat by almost a fortnight while announcing the schedule for Himachal Pradesh and indicating that the polls in both states would be completed by December 18.
"What is the justification for delaying announcement of poll schedule in Gujarat other than allowing Modi to visit the State and announce mega schemes and also enable the BJP Chief Minister Vijay Rupani to announce sops to the electorate after indicating that the polling in the State will be completed by December 18," he asked and wondered what is the great flood relief work that the Prime Minister and Chief Minister, both belonging to BJP, did in Gujarat in the two weeks.
He said the Prime Minister visited Gujarat three times and announced a package of thousands of Rs 13,000 crore.
"An associate of Hardik Patel, leader of Patidar movement, has said he was offered Rs 1 crore to join the BJP. The BJP is the architect of Operation Lotus in Karnataka. Now it seems B.S.Yeddyurappa has taught the same to his party president Amit Shah to execute in Gujarat," he commented.
Narendra Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat for 12 years. Even after ruling the state for such a long time, he recently said the UPA rule did not allow him to develop his state Gujarat.
"It has been four years since he assumed the office of PM. Gujarat has been ruled by the BJP only. Why could not he develop the state all these years even after having power both at the centre and the state?” he wondered.
Commenting on the recent pre-poll survey predicting a victory for the BJP in Gujarat, Deve Gowda said according to the information he received there was a tough fight between the BJP and the Congress.
The JD(S) leader said his party would also protest on November 8 against the ill-conceived demonetisation announced by Modi which resulted in untold miseries to the people, especially the rural poor and farmers and small businessmen.
Gowda said the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax was done without any preparations like the demonetisation.
"The government is engaged in bringing in many changes in the GST. I don’t know how many changes they will make before the elections in Gujarat," he said and pointed out that the RBI and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely also did the same with regard to demonetisation, making frequent changes.
The Prime Minister had claimed that he would solve all the problems of demonetisation, bring out black money, end fake currency etc within 50 days from November 8, 2016. What has happened even after 11 months?, he asked.