‘You’re Being Phool-ed’: Ahead of Polls, K’taka Cong’s Unique Protest Against BJP Govt on Budget Day

Karnataka politics has become a stage for theatrics and symbolism, with Congress leaders coming to the assembly with marigold flowers on their ears for the budget presentation on Friday.

They allege that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has cheated people and made them fools by not fulfilling promises in the 2018 manifesto. A common Kannada phrase – ‘kivimelehoova’ – (flower on the ear) means one is fooling the other. So when a person feels he is being fooled, the common analogy in Kannada is “stop putting a flower in my ear”.

Hence, the flowers on the ears for the protest.

Karnataka is heading towards elections and the BJP and Congress have been at each other’s throats. Both parties have been targeting each other on issues related to inflation, corruption, terrorism, communalism, caste-based politics and non-performance.

Meanwhile, BJP’s former CM BS Yediyurappa walked up to Congress’s DK Shivakumar and removed the flower from his ear.

ATTACK IS ON

While the Karnataka Congress has been attacking the ruling BJP on multiple fronts, including corruption, casteism and communalism, the BJP has left no stone unturned to target the Congress on their links with the Popular Front of India (PFI), their failed government schemes and ideology such as Tipu versus Savarkar.

Karnataka Congress in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala on Thursday attacked the CM Basavaraj Bommai-led government saying that it was built on defection and corruption and has become a curse for ‘brand Karnataka’.

“As the tenure of the ‘Brashtasura Bommai Government’ comes to an end, it leaves behind an unending tail of broken promises and shattered dreams as also brazen loot of public money. Integrity, accountability and governance have been publicly hanged by the BJP Government of Karnataka,” Surjewala said.

The Congress also attacked the Bommai government for not delivering on promises that were made in the previous budget and asked Bommai to answer six questions for the 6.5 crore Kannadigas.

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The questions were on promises of farm loan waiver, free smartphones for young schoolgirls, job opportunities for the youth, betraying the SC/ST and OBC communities by not giving them the promised scholarships, apart from growth in the health, industrial and infrastructure sectors.

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