Siddaramaiah accuses PM Modi of cheating Karnataka

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ‘cheated’ Karnataka, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah said Friday, hitting out at his ‘silence’ on flood relief and other issues pertaining to the state during his two-day visit.

“I was listening to Modi that people elected 25 BJP MPs from Karnataka. Even the MPs told people not to vote for them, but for Modi. People voted for Modi, but today, he has cheated Karnataka in a big way,” Siddaramaiah told reporters. 

“During the Assembly elections, Modi had said that if the BJP is voted to power both at the state and the Centre, the doors of luck will open. Forget the door of luck, Modi didn’t open his door to the leaders of his own party,” the former CM charged. 

Taking exception to Modi’s speech at the Siddaganga Mutt in Tumakuru, Siddaramaiah said schoolchildren in the audience should not have been subjected to a political discourse. “He should’ve talked to them about education and the future. Instead, he talks about Pakistan, the Citizenship Amendment Act and the NRC. Is it appropriate and relevant,” Siddaramaiah asked. 

On Modi daring the Congress to protest against Pakistan’s atrocities on religious minorities, Siddaramaiah said: “Pakistan is an evil state, I admit. But what are you doing to your minorities?”

The Congress leader said Modi did not utter a single word on flood relief in Karnataka, which saw unprecedented havoc in August 2019. “What is the CM doing with 25 MPs? Karnataka is facing step-motherly treatment. But when I say this, the BJP gets mad at me and they start scratching themselves,” he said. 

Modi, he said, did not visit Karnataka when it was reeling under floods. “He tweets for small things, but he didn’t do that also for Karnataka.
It’s the duty of the PM to listen to the woes of people. Modi has failed in his duty completely,” he said.