Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Mar 12: The Karnataka Congress on its Twitter handle has released a ‘chargesheet’ charting out the ‘10 most prominent betrayals by the BJP’. Naming this anti-BJP campaign as ‘NAmageMOsa – BJP cheats Karnataka’, with the uppercase letters to spell NAMO (short for Narendra Modi), the Congress blamed BJP for consistently acting against the state’s interest.
"Will the @BJP4Karnataka leaders muster the courage to answer real issues that affect the Kannadigas? Will they respect our right to Language, Culture and Water? Not likely. They are busy spreading rumours to polarize to win an election," tweeted Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in response to the 'chargesheet' campaign.
In its ‘chargesheet’, the Karnataka Congress has blamed BJP for:
1) Repeatedly nominating and electing non Kannadigas as Rajya Sabha representatives from Karnataka, the latest being Rajeev Chandrashekar. "Can they really represent Karnataka’s best interests in Parliament? Aren’t there any people from Karnataka for BJP to choose from?" questioned Karnataka Congress.
2) The Karnataka government has sought Modi government’s intervention in resolving the Mahadayi issue on several occasions. CM Siddaramaiah has requested PM Modi to convene a meeting between the three states involved. The Modi government at the centre has refused to even comment on the issue, Karnataka Congress pointed out.
3) The rules for the exams to work in regional rural banks were modified and the exams were now held in English/Hindi and not in Kannada. This move worked against the local Kannadigas writing the exam. The CM wrote to Arun Jaitley requesting that the rules be changed to allow candidates to write the paper in Kannada. There has been no response, they alleged.
4) In April 2017, Karnataka was awarded a mere Rs 1435.95 crore even though the state suffered from the worst drought in 45 years. BJP ruled states received a much higher amount in disaster relief with Maharashtra being allocated Rs 8,195 crore, Gujarat Rs 3894 crore and Rajasthan Rs 2153 crore , they blamed.
5) The Modi government decided to shift the CRPF headquarters to Chandaili, in UP which is the home town of Union Minister Rajnath Singh, from Taralu in Karnataka. This move was severely criticized as UP already has 5 CRPF centres in the state. The state government in Karnataka had already provided 220 acres of land for the centre, while UP was still in the process of acquiring the land when the announcement was made.
6) The Karnataka government has unveiled a state flag as a symbol of Kannada valour and pride. This move has been criticized by state BJP leaders, who are not in favour of a separate flag for the state.
7) Bengaluru’s HAL has been making aircrafts for the Indian Air Force for 70 years. The Modi government denied HAL the Rafale contract and awarded it to Ambani, thus depriving Karnataka’s youth of job opportunities.
8) The Karnataka state government announced a farm loan waiver in 2017 worth Rs 8165 crores for loans taken from cooperative banks. The waiver was for upto Rs 50,000 per farmer, to benefit 22,27,506 farmers in the state. To extend the benefit to the farmers who had borrowed from nationalized and commercial banks, the state government sought help from the Modi government. However, no assistance was extended for this, they blamed.
9) The central government has tried to impose Hindi on the people of Karnataka (Example being the signboards for Namma Metro in Bengaluru). The Karnataka state government has opposed this and has instead been in favour of promoting Karnataka in the state.
10) At the height of Cauvery crisis in 2016, the Karnataka government wrote to PM Modi, asking him to intervene to assist in arriving at a resolution of the water sharing issue. The centre did not respond or comment to the CM’s request. The BJP state leaders even skipped the all party meeting, breaking the unity of the state in issues of land, water and language, blamed the Karnataka Congress.