Bengaluru: In his latest dig at the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) alliance in Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said chief minister HD Kumaraswamy was remote-controlled by others.
Soon after, Kumaraswamy hit back wondering why even a free Prime Minister was unable to do half as much as he did under such circumstances.
Modi, who was addressing a gathering in senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge’s constituency Gulbarga, said, “Kumaraswamy is remote-controlled by others. This coalition government is against farmers and they would never forgive this regime. Kumaraswamy is not getting any cooperation from his coalition partner. The government has not waived off farm loans. Though the government sitting in Bengaluru is unable to provide any relief to farmers, the central government is directly depositing money into farmers’ bank accounts.”
Further, the Prime Minister said, “To fulfil the petroleum needs of Raichur, the Centre has decided to build a petroleum depot on 56 acres of land. The number ‘56’ brings nightmares to Congress leaders.”
Kumaraswamy said, “The Prime Minister is a great orator. But when it comes to developmental work, it ends with his words. They never turn into a reality. Modi says I am remote-controlled. Let us believe that for his sake. But even with such hardship, I have achieved a lot and worked for society. When a remote-controlled chief minister can work so much, why a Prime Minister who is absolutely free, can’t do any real work for the nation. I don’t need ‘gyaan’ from him.”
Congress leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah also took to Twitter to take a swipe at the Prime Minister, who he said might be expressing his own experience of being controlled (by the RSS) from Nagpur through his comments against others.
No individuals can control a CM in democracy. Only people can control them with their votes. May be @narendramodi's experience of him being controlled from Nagpur is making him comment against others.— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) March 6, 2019
When asked about Modi’s remarks on farm loan waivers, Kumaraswamy said, “In the history of prime ministers, if there has been any one who has zero information about what is happening in the state, it’s Modi. Till now, 7 lakh farmers’ loans in cooperative banks and 6.40 lakh farmers’ loans from commercial banks have been waived off. This is the number of farm loan waiver beneficiaries. The government has released Rs 11,170 crore towards the same. I want to tell Narendra Modi to stop making loose comments on the issue. I believe he doesn’t have the knowledge that about 15 lakh families have benefited from the waiver scheme. If he wants, I can send my officers to him with details.”
“Nobody can equal Modi in lying. People have to stay awake to understand how blatantly he fabricates things,” Kumaraswamy added.
Regarding Modi’s allegations that the state government was not providing details of farmers to the Centre for direct bank transfer of Rs 2,000 into their accounts, the chief minister said, “The Centre is bankrupt and doesn’t have sufficient money to deposit into farmers’ accounts. It has not allotted its share of Rs 2,000 crore for the state under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. However, it has diverted Rs 20,000 crore NREGS funds to the direct bank transfer scheme. This is the so-called achievement of the Modi government. My programmes are not like his which never become a reality. My government’s programmes never fail his.”
Comments
0 comment