Modi is exposing himself in run up to Karnataka polls: Anand Sharma

Former union minister and Deputy leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is exposing himself in the Karnataka elections.

Speaking to reporters here on Friday, he said the prime minister should stop telling lies while seeking votes for the BJP in the run up to the elections. “Before Modi, no Prime Minister had used defense forces for politics. It is a tragedy that those who protect the nation, are being used for electoral purposes by the PM. The Indian Army belongs to Hindustan and not to Shah or Modi,” he said. Though Congress respected the Army for surgical strikes, Modi told a lie in this regard, Sharma said.

Referring to the Prime Minister’s speech at Kalaburagi that Field Marshal K M Cariappa and General K Thimayya were repeatedly insulted by the then Congress government led by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the then Defence Minister Krishna Menon, Sharma said that a fact check reveals that the Commander in Chief of the Indian Army during the 1947-1948 war against Pakistan was not General Thimayya. “During the war, General Thimayya led the Army in operations in Kashmir, and went on to become the Army Chief in 1957,” he said.

Appealing to voters not to take the words of Modi seriously unless it is cross checked, Sharma said that Modi should seek an apology for betraying farmers, youth and women on safety issues.

Modi should clarify whether there are two sets of laws in the country, one for political opponents and another for his supporters. Why is Modi silent about Union Minister Piyush Goel owning a company, the turnover of the company of Amit Shah’s son and on the Nirav Modi bank fraud, he sought to know.

He accused Modi of failing to fulfil the promises he made and is habituated of telling lies. “Before Modi government came to power, about 84% of the villages were electrified. About 16% of the villages are yet to be electrified. However, by electrifying a few villages, they have been claiming that they electrified the villages. Such lies are created when the elections are nearing,” he alleged.

Sharma urged Modi to break his silence on corruption, employment and issues pertaining to farmers.

“Though BJP’s manifesto promises to waive the loans borrowed by the farmers, the Congress-led government in Karnataka had waived the loans borrowed by the farmers from cooperative societies. When the CM wrote to the PM about waiving the loans borrowed from nationalised banks, the Prime Minister failed to do so,” he said.

He also sought a white paper on how many dedicated police stations for women were set up by the NDA government in the last four years. He also demanded allocation of funds for such police stations.

Stating that people’s money has been plundered by the BJP, he said people have lost faith in the banking system after demonetisation. He sought to know whether RBI could give an assurance about the safety of money.

“It is not the time to seek votes. Now, it is the time to seek answers from Modi about the develoment of the country in the last four years. The NDA government has misused the CBI, Enforcement Directorate, IT and Intelligence against opponents and used the same agency to protect corrupt people from the BJP. The foundation of the government is based on lies, deceit and false propaganda. Modi does not want to see the ground reality and is intolerant of criticism.”

About 33% of the MSMEs have closed down post demonetisation.

The faulty implementation of GST has affected all the sectors. “The count down of the BJP has begun. We will give him a formal, respectful send off in 2019 election. Had the dream project of bullet train commenced, we could have sent him in it?” he said in a lighter vein.