PM kicks up a row ahead of state visit - CM mocks Modi, says state fund remark infantile

BENGALURU: Chief minister Siddaramaiah has termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stand that funds will not be released to states that are “anti-development“ as “infantile.“

Addressing a rally in Dharwad to honour recipients of government programmes in the Belagavi division of the state, a region where the Congress and the BJP are locked in a battle for political control, Siddaramaiah ripped into Modi's stand and said: “I presume the PM is aware of the federal structure of our country. His statement that states that don't conform to the Centre's stand is infantile.“

Siddaramaiah said the Centre gets its funds from taxes paid by the people of all states, which are then reallocated to them. “The funds that come from the Centre to states is not charity. We pay service tax, excise tax, contribute to ITBT exports. Central funds are our right,“ he said.

Attacking the Centre's economic policies, he said: "Who got achche din? Not farmers, the poor, the women or the unemployed young boys and girls. Demonetisation ensured that people became sleepless and the economy got derailed."

The chief minister also said that neither Modi nor the BJP national president Amit Shah's "magic" would work in the state, which will go to polls early next year. “This is the land of Basa vanna, of peace and tolerance.Their magic won't work here," he said. Siddaramaiah mocked BJP state president and CM-face BS Yeddyurappa's programme of Mission-150, where he seeks to win 150 of the state's 224 assembly segments for his party. “The Mission 150 has now become Mission 50,“ he said.