Former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy attacked the state government for discontinuing the subsidy for interest on farm and gold loans secured by farmers. He also attacked DyCM CN Ashwath Narayan over his comments that Kumaraswamy was dividing the society.
Reacting to reports that the government had stopped the subsidy announced by the Kumaraswamy-led coalition government, he accused the government of forcing the poor to surrender to the whims of money lenders. "On the other hand, the central government is stealing the gold kept in banks by the poor, by auctioning them," he alleged.
Taking a dig at Ashwath Narayan for his remarks that the JD(S) leader should not use the term 'Vokkaliga', he said that it was the disease of the BJP to use leaders of a particular community to target the whole community. "BJP leaders, I have only talked about the identity of Vokkaligas. Have I ordered in a political forum that none of the votes of my community should go to other parties?" he said.
Unlike BJP, Kumaraswamy said, he believed in secular ideals of respecting all religions and communities. "I don't need any lessons from those who regularly target other religions and use castes only for votes," he added.
