New Delhi: Launching a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of alleged corruption and said in his forty years of political career, he never saw a prime minister speaking “lies”. Addressing a rally in Sangli district of Maharashtra on Sunday, he said the responsibility of every Congress worker is to defeat the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre and save the Constitution and democracy.
"Never in my 40-year political life have I seen a prime minister who speaks lies. In 2014, he (Modi) spoke of depositing Rs 15 lakh into the bank accounts of people, two crore jobs and bringing achhe din (good days). Did anything of this sort happen,” Siddaramaiah said.
He slammed the BJP saying the saffron party had previously won in Karnataka not by people's mandate, but by luring MLAs with money.
Taking potshots at the Maharashtra government, he said, “I am sure the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government (in Maharashtra) is also corrupt and it is the job of all Congress workers to defeat them. All of us have to wage another freedom struggle to save the country, Constitution and democracy. It is because of Ambedkar that I am the chief minister.”
Siddaramaiah also accused the Centre of asking the Food Corporation of India (FCI) not to provide rice to the Karnataka government for a scheme, which is one of the five guarantees, that was supposed to start after the Congress came to power in Karnataka.
''In the first cabinet meeting, we decided to implement the five guarantees we gave in our manifesto, one of which is providing 10 kg rice free to the poor people. The central government's move is to ensure we don't work on this," he alleged.
"The BJP can stoop to any level for politics. We were to purchase rice from the FCI and not take it for free. We want to provide the rice, purchased at a given price, free of cost to the poor,'' he said.
Later, speaking at an event to mark legendary 18th century ruler of the Indore state Ahilyadevi Holkar’s 298th birth anniversary, he said educating women and making them financially independent would be a true tribute to the leader.
"Educating women and making them financially independent would be a true tribute to Ahilyadevi Holkar," he said.
"We took some steps towards achieving this goal by announcing free bus travel across Karnataka to women and also depositing Rs 2,000 per month into the bank accounts of women who are heads of their families,'' Siddaramaiah said.
He also said he was confident that the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will win the next Assembly elections in Maharashtra and added that they should implement these schemes for women.