Modi's visit today, Siddu asks: What about misgovernance?

Bengaluru: Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Bengaluru Friday morning to unveil the 108-feet tall bronze statue of the city's founder Nadaprabhu Kempegowda, and inaugurate Terminal 2 of the International Airport here, a politial war of words has broken out with senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah questioning Modi's silence on the 'maladministration' in Karnataka.

 In an open letter to the PM, the former CM targeted BJP ministers calling a few of them ‘kingpins' involved in scams. He accused Modi of inaction over the written complaint from the victims of the '40 percent commission' government in the state.

“Your silence on these is both deafening and disheartening. What of your promise ‘Na Khaunga Na Khane Dunga' and ‘Saaf Niyat, Sahi Vikas'? Does your silence mean that you are tacitly encouraging every BJP minister to loot the common man? Will you dare to sack all tainted ministers?...,”

Siddaramaiah asked in his letter. He also claimed that the state's inflation rate has gone up to 7.62 per cent, while over a third of the youth in Karnataka are unemployed. “Of the 600 promises made in the 2018 manifesto of the BJP titled 'Namma Karnatakakke Namma Vachana', over 90 per cent remain unfulfilled,” Siddaramaiah claimed.

Meanwhile, President of the Karnataka Congress D K Shivakumar questioned why government funds were used to install the statue of Kempegowda at the international airport. Shivakumar said the Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL), which runs the Kempegowda International Airport, should have taken up and completed the work on the statue.

He referred to the land and funds provided to the airport by the government and the income the facility earns. "Karnataka govt has given the land and also funds for the Bengaluru International Airport Limited. Out of 4,200-acre land, 2,000 acre was given at only Rs 6-lakh per acre. Along with money, they have shares. It (BIAL) should have used its money, why use government money," Shivakumar wondered.

Modi's visit will also see him addressing a mass gathering later in the day. He will be flagging off south India's first 'Vande Bharat Express' between Mysuru and Chennai via Bengaluru. This visit of the Prime Minister is politically significant for the ruling BJP with just about five months left for the Assembly polls.

The PM will pay floral tributes to the statues of saint poet Kanaka Dasa on his birth anniversary, and Maharshi Valmiki at the Vidhana Soudha premises.