Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at the culmination of BJP’s Parivartana rally at Palace Grounds in Bengaluru last Sunday continues to attract severe criticism by Congressmen.
Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil and Tourism and Information Technology & Bio-Technology Minister Priyank Kharge termed Mr. Modi “a most irresponsible” Prime Mime Minister. They were addressing a press conference at Aiwan-e-Shahi guest house here on Saturday.
“Individuals come as Prime Minister and go. But the position of Prime Minister remains. Whoever comes to the position should not speak in such a way that it belittles the stature of the position. Mr. Modi’s Bengaluru speech was a most irresponsible one. If a Prime Minister speaks irresponsibly, the people would tend to lose faith in politicians and democracy. And breaching people’s faith is equal to damaging democracy. I think Mr. Modi did intend it,” Mr. Patil said.
‘No moral right’
Responding to Prime Minister’s charges against the Congress-led government, Mr. Patil said that neither BJP nor Mr. Modi had the moral right to question the governance in the State either on corruption or on law and order situation.
“Having BJP chief Amit Shah, who is facing charges of serious criminal offences, seated on his one side and [B.S.] Yeddyurappa who had to step down from the Chief Minister’s post to land in jail for corruption on the other, Mr. Modi speaks of law and order and corruption. It was when Mr. Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat that the State witnessed one of the worst communal carnages in which over 2,000 innocent people were brutally killed. And the same person is now talking about law and order,” he said.
Responding to Prime Minister’s “10% bribe” remarks, Mr. Patil questioned why Mr. Modi was silent in the last three-and-a-half years if he was certain about serious corruption prevalent in Karnataka. “As a Prime Minister, he had all investigating and law-enforcing agencies under his control. Why was he silent all these years? Who prevented him from taking action? Just to mislead voters ahead of Assembly polls, he made baseless charges,” Mr. Patil said.
The BJP’s dream of making Karnataka Congress-free would remain a dream forever as people knew how corruption was ruling the roost in the State when BJP was in power and how many Ministers and Mr. Yeddyurappa, had to land in jail for their corruption and misrule, he added.
‘Avoiding media interaction’
Mr. Kharge said that the Prime Minister always opted for such communication modes where people could only listen and not question.
“Prime Minister’s means of communication are radio, public meetings and social media such as Twitter, where people are forced to listen and they have no opportunity to question. He consciously avoided media interaction precisely for escaping from inconvenient questions,” he said.
“It is a democracy and Prime Minister is accountable to the people. He cannot escape from his responsibility of facing questions from people as well as media who have a right to question. Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi had regularly interacted with media when they were Prime Ministers and they faced inconvenient questions. But Mr. Modi is running away from the press,” Mr. Patil added.
