Congress files ‘charge sheet’ against Bommai govt

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: State Congress on Tuesday released BJP’s “Paapada Purana,” (account of sins), a charge sheet of sorts. They also launched the website ‘Praja Dhwani’ (voice of the people) to collect suggestions from the people of Karnataka for its manifesto.

The website is ‘prajadhwani.com’ and one can also give a missed call to a missed call to ‘9537 224 224’ to get a call back to register their suggestions. Party bigwigs alleged that the BJP government and its “weak” chief minister had driven the state to the ground by way of corruption, communalism and policy paralysis.

They added that the saffron party had violated people’s mandate by stealing away MLAs through Operation Kamala. Issues such as nonfulfillment of most of the promises made in BJP’s manifesto, soaring inflation affecting essential goods, denial of the promised Rs 70,000 crore loan waivers to farmers, doubling of the state’s debt, massive spike in children dropping out of schools during and after Covid and unemployment were also raised. Leader of the Opposition (LOP) in the Assembly Siddaramaiah slammed the BJP State government for alleged corruption.

“Never in the history of Karnataka had a contractors’ association written to the prime minister, president and chief minister alleging 40 per cent commission. For the first time in history, contractors wrote a letter on July 6, 2021. So far, the prime minister has not responded to this, nor has he taken any action. Every time he got a chance, he said ‘na khaunga, na khane doonga’ (won’t usurp, nor let others do the same).

This is all play acting,” he said, adding that the State gover nment was comparable to the 40 thieves from the famous story of Ali Baba. Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to double farmers’ incomes but on the contrary, farmers had suffered immensely under the BJP governments at the Centre, Karnataka and in other states.

“Minimum suppor t prices weren’t fixed for farmers. Even though the Central government took back the black law (farm bills), it did not happen in the state. If we question these things and protest, they bombard us with cases. We don’t fear these cases,” he said.