Cancelling BPL cards is vendetta politics: Ivan

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, by threatening to cancel one lakh bogus BPL cards in each district, is practising vendetta politics, MLC Ivan D’Souza charged on Saturday.

“If the chief minister goes ahead and cancels the BPL cards to reduce the burden on the exchequer by Rs 2,500 crore, we will not spare his government,” D’Souza warned while addressing reporters at the Congress Bhavan.

The legislator also took a potshot at the chief minister for not being able to expand the Cabinet.

“The chief minister had been plotting the downfall of the coalition government for 14 months. Now, even after 10 days of being the chief minister, Yediyurappa has not been able to expand his ministry,” he ridiculed.

D’Souza also said that the BJP government – which won just 36% of the vote share in the recent Assembly elections – would not last long.

He declared that the Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials, who harassed Cafe Coffee Day Founder V G Siddhartha Hegde, should be booked for culpable homicide.

“The Central government, based on Siddhartha’s letter to his directors, should suo motu register a case against the I-T and ED officials. As against the I-T spirit, the officers seized his property and pushed Siddhartha into a well with his hands tied. Today, the I-T Department decides who should flee and who should stay in the country,” he lamented.

“Due to I-T pressure and slump in economy, many small scale industries have shut down. Siddhartha’s death should be an eye opener and force the government to change their economic policy,” he stressed.

D’Souza also shared statistics on how the economy was taking a beating under Narendra Modi’s rule.