With Assembly elections in Karnataka just two weeks away, the two main political parties, Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have both intensified their campaigning. While Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah have been canvassing the state and holding a series of public rallies, the BJP sent in its big hitters in the form of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

On Thursday, there were several hard-hitting speeches. The BJP said the Congress government in the state was being soft on terror, while Rahul accused the Centre of collusion with corrupt persons.

Let's do a quick fact-check to see how far true were the allegations raised by the political leaders:

Rahul Gandhi: Rahul described the election in Karnataka as a "battle of two ideologies". "On one side there is Congress which believes in empowerment, while on the other side are RSS-BJP, and Narendra Modi and BS Yeddyurappa, who want to spread RSS' ideology across India. They only want that the ideology from RSS' Nagpur office should prevail in India," he said.

The RSS is the BJP's ideological fountainhead, and there can be little doubt that a victory for the saffron party will be akin to a victory for the ideology as well.

Rahul also assailed the Central government of being hand-in-glove with corruption, because it nominated the scam-tainted Reddy brothers. "You brought Gabbar Singh Tax but this time you have gone even further. You have fielded the entire gang of Gabbar Singh. There is Gabbar, Sambha, Kalia, and all of them.... Reddy brothers gang, which was in jail.... You are trying to get them inducted into the Assembly, and you tell the country that you are fighting against corruption," he said.

Mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy was a minister in the BS Yeddyurappa government, who is leading the BJP campaign in Karnataka. He was removed after massive corruption charges involving illegal mining in 2011. But, as reported by Deccan Chronicle last month, Reddy was granted a ticket, with the BJP saying it "made a compromise" because it wanted to win Bellary.

The Congress president also sought to highlight the Karnataka government's contribution towards education for the girl child and alleged that Modi will turn Karnataka into Gujarat. "While Karnataka worked to offer free education to the girl child, in Modi's Gujarat, people have to struggle to afford education for their children because of blatant privatisation (of schools). Here you can do it for free. That's the difference between his governance and ours," Rahul said.

The Karnataka government did announce free education for all girl students in all government-run institutions in the state up to post-graduation levels. As reported by NDTV, the scheme is expected to benefit 3.7 lakh students, but will only kick in from the 2018-19 academic year onwards. Two years ago, in 2017, the state government had announced free education for girls from Class 1 till graduation in government schools, and government aided-private schools from 2018-19.

In stark contrast is the situation in Gujarat, Modi's home state. As of July 2016, as reported by The Times of India, Gujarat ranked 20th out of 21 states as far as registration of girls in schools is concerned, only slightly better than Rajasthan, and 10 percent worse than the national average.

Narendra Modi: Modi castigated Rahul Gandhi for insulting HD Deve Gowda at an election rally earlier this week. He had said that the former prime minister was "one of the tallest leaders of the country", and that Rahul was insulting him by insinuating the JD(S) was a 'B-Team' of the BJP.

However, in a couple of days, he seemed to have forgotten about this. On Thursday, Modi said people shouldn't "waste" their votes by backing Gowda's party as it was going to finish "a poor, distant third" in the elections. "Will any intelligent person waste his vote on a party that cannot win the election, cannot dislodge the Congress from power?" he asked. "The only service it has done to the state is to join hands with extremist, communal elements, risking the future of Karnataka," he said, an apparent reference to Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM extending support to the JD(S).

Clearly, he forgot about not insulting "one of the tallest leaders of the country".

Modi then attacked Siddaramaiah's party for changing the face of Bengaluru, which used to be the "country's Silicon Valley" but is now known for more its garbage, potholes and a crime-ridden city.

On this front, Modi does have a point. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data has proven that there was a 28 percent increase in crimes in Bangalore, and the city now ranks next only to New Delhi for violent crimes. However, when it comes to overall crimes committed, Bengaluru, the country's third most populous city, ranks seventh overall.

Modi then said, "Forgetting the national heroes, patriots, and history is the nature of a family in the Congress. (Jawaharlal) Nehru and VK Krishna Menon insulted General (KS) Thimayya, who had to resign."

"The army won the battle against Pakistan in 1948 under the leadership of General Thimayya, but the man who saved Kashmir had to resign because of insult and to protect his self-respect. They (Congress governments) neglected and insulted Field Marshal (KM) Cariappa," Modi said.

However, as pointed out by psephologist-turned-Swaraj Abhiyan chief Yogendra Yadav, Modi got a few details wrong yet again.

Siddaramaiah then retweeted this, and added that Karnataka holds Cariappa in high esteem.


Updated Date: May 04, 2018 12:49 PM