Modi’s magic will not work here, his speeches are hollow, says Siddaramaiah

Chief minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday said the people of Karnataka would reject the messages of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling his election speeches hollow and baseless.

Interacting with the press here, Siddaramaiah said, “Modi’s magic will not work because his speeches are hollow and baseless.” The chief minister said while he respected the post of the prime minister it was also the responsibility of the person occupying the post to ensure civility.

“Modi says Sabka saath sabka vikas, without giving even a single ticket to Muslims or Christians. They should say openly that except for Muslims and Christians, it is sabka saath sabka vikas,” Siddaramaiah said, mocking the prime minister’s election slogan from the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Responding to Modi’s criticism of the Congress over the handling of the Mahadayi water sharing dispute, Siddaramaiah said it was irresponsible of the prime minister to blame former Congress president Sonia Gandhi for the impasse. “He has shown his pettiness by shifting responsibility to others…It’s his responsibility to intervene because he is the prime minister. Sonia Gandhi was the party president and not the prime minister,” Siddaramaiah said.

The chief minister said the Bharatiya Janata Party was completely dependent on Modi because it didn’t have any big leaders. “He had been visiting for six months, now. I thought he would speak like a prime minister, talk about their achievements in four years and the previous state government’s work. Some thought they would be civil, but they use unparliamentary words. Along with Modi others have also spoken in filthy language and everybody has seen this,” Siddaramaiah said.

The chief minister dismissed this as a triangular contest. “While on the surface it appears to be so, in every region it is either a contest between Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) or Congress and BJP,” he said. “Except in Kodagu, Congress has got a presence in every other district. Even in coastal Karnataka BJP only managed to win four out of 19 seats in 2013.”

Responding to the BJP criticism that there was a breakdown of law and order in the state, Siddaramaiah said the state would not have received record amount of investment intentions if this was so. “In 2013, Gujarat had received the highest amount of investments, and we were in placed 13th. But in both 2015-16 and 2016-17 we received the highest amount of investments, with Gujarat finishing second. Do they investors will come if there is no law and order?”

Taking a pot shot at BJP president Amit Shah, the chief minister said his claims that the current central government had increased devolution of taxes following the fourteenth finance commission’s recommendations, was misleading because it had to increase. “Nobody with economic common sense will say that. He keeps asking me for accounts without bothering to look at the budgetary documents we have released every year,” he said.