MANGALURU: Former finance and home minister P
Chidambaram on Wednesday said the
Karnataka growth story under
Siddaramaiah for last five years is one which lays out clear hope for the
Congress to return to power in the state. While the election is to a state legislature, Chidambaram said yet, the importance of the election to the whole country is obvious to all and the hopes and aspirations of the people of the country are riding on the voters of Karnataka.
Backing his assertion with statistics, Chidambaram told reporters that 8% growth in states gross state domestic product, per capita growth in income of an average resident of Karnataka that has grown 125% compared to all-India growth of 59%, lowest unemployment rate for all states at 2.6% against 5.9% nationally, average fiscal deficit of 2.26% and average revenue account surplus of 0.08%, and social sector expenditure of over 40% are indictors of this growth story.
Attributing this to a stable government under Siddaramaiah, the second to do so after Devaraj Urs, Chidambaram said this stands in stark contrast to five years rule of BJP for 2008-13, which saw three chief ministers. “It was perhaps the worst government in the history of Karnataka. It is the same incompetent men and women who are leading the BJP’s campaign in this election and asking for your votes,” Chidambaram said, buttressing the case for re-election of Congress.
Moving forward, Chidambaram said, Karnataka faces two-fold challenge, first of which is to maintain momentum of development that has been achieved in the last five years and second to boldly confront the design of the RSS-BJP dispensation to wreck the federal system, weaken the states, and impose their pernicious agenda of one history, one culture, one religion, one language, and one code of behaviour. This has been particularly true in coastal Karnataka, he said.
Referring to one such designs of the RSS-BJP dispensation, Chidambaram said this can be seen in the appointment of the XV Finance Commission and drawing up the terms of reference (ToR). Noting that
Modi government has distorted and violated the Constitutional provisions with this ToR, he said it is biased against the states that have been better governed in the past and are relatively more developed, and that includes the southern states.
