Cong hypocritical on south solidarity, says HDK

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: JD(S) state president HD Kumaraswamy on Tuesday hit out against the Congress, accusing the party of being inconsistent on its stand on tax devolution to southern states.

He pointed out that Kerala Congress MLAs had refused to join Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan when he gave a call to stage a protest in New Delhi for the very same reason on Thursday.

Congress is the principal Opposition party in Kerala while Left parties rule the state.

Congress led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah , Deputy CM DK Shivakumar and other bigwigs from the state are expected to take part in the demonstration at Jantar Mantar on Wednesday. Telangana’s ruling Congress would also stage similar protests in the near future.

Kumaraswamy said that the Congress MLAs even boycotted the Kerala Assembly proceedings and with it, the resolution on tax devolution against the Centre.

“The Congressmen refused to attend the all-party meeting called by Vijayan. They were absent during a resolution passed against the Centre and even boycotted the Assembly proceedings. Not only that, they have decided to boycott the Vijayan-led protest on February 8 in Delhi,” Kumaraswamy said.

“Congressmen told Vijayan: You are wasting people’s money on unnecessary expenses. We won’t come,” he added.

JD(S) is a part of the ruling coalition in the Kerala government while JD(S) Karnataka is allied with the BJP. Shivakumar has in the past mocked Kumaraswamy for the seemingly contradictory alliances.

Kerala has similar grouses

During Siddaramaiah’s first term as CM between 2013 and 2018, he had flagged the tax devolution under the 15th Finance Commission as unfair and then Kerala Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac had called for a meeting of different southern state ministers who held the Finance portfolio to come together to protest the issue.

It came to nothing because Congress’ attention was diverted to the Assembly elections.

Siddaramaiah has repeatedly pointed out that under the 14th Finance Commission, Karnataka’s share which was 4.71 per cent was reduced to 3.64 per cent in the 15th Finance Commission, a 1.07 per cent reduction.

This comes out to a loss of Rs 45,000 crores decrease in four years.