Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, not Jawaharlal Nehru our role model: K S Eshwarappa

“Former Prime Minister, the late Jawaharlal Nehru, is not our role model as he divided the country into India and Pakistan,” MLA and former Karnataka minister K S Eshwarappa said on Wednesday.

He went on to say, “Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Syama Prasad Mukherjee are our role models.” Eshwarappa called out the arrested state Congress leaders and ridiculed the “state of Congress in Karnataka."

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Eshwarappa was scathing towards D K Shivakumar, who was jailed in Tihar, saying that a man who went to jail was the president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, while another Congress person who was in Bengaluru jail, Mohammed Nalapad, was the Youth Congress president.

The former state minister dismissed the comments made by Leader of Opposition in the state legislative assembly Siddaramaiah, about the Bharatiya Janata Party fearing the Congress after seeing the massive turnout of people for the latter’s 75th birthday celebrations in Davangere. The BJP leader said that while Congress leaders claimed that the BJP would not win even two seats in the Lok Sabha polls of 2019, in the end Congress was left shame faced as it won just one seat, while the BJP got 25.

According to Eshwarappa, the state’s youth were following Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Congress leaders were unable to “digest” this. “So, they are making negative comments about the Har Ghar Tiranga campaign. I appeal to Congress leaders not to politicise the 75th year of India's Independence. They must encourage the youth to develop patriotism and hoist tri-colour atop their houses,” Eshwarappa said.

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The BJP leader also commented on the rain-caused destruction in the district. He was sympathetic towards the general public’s plight. He said that 47 houses collapsed in May due to rains, and the corporation provided compensation of Rs 95,000 to each house owner. He explained that while only eight houses collapsed this time, tehsildars were authorised to allocate Rs 95,000 as compensation to the victims. According to him, there were unauthorised houses, too, which collapsed, and even those house owners were compensated with Rs 25,000 last time.

“This time, we would take a call on the compensation for them, after holding a meeting with the deputy commissioner. I have discussed it with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. We are committed to lending a helping hand even to the owners of unauthorised houses. People residing in such houses would be shifted to rehabilitation centres,” he said.