Modi takes on Siddaramaiah on corruption on his home turf

Mysuru, Shravanabelagola February 19  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday lashed out at the Siddaramaiah government on the corruption issue, saying new scams and charges of corruption were emerging “every day” under it.

Addressing a BJP public rally here, Modi said after he levelled a “10 per cent commission” charge against the Siddaramaiah government, he received many calls saying his information was incorrect and it was much more.

“I can understand the anger of the people of Karnataka,” he said, asking whether the state wanted a “commission or a mission government”.

Karnataka, he said, wants a “mission government” and not a “commission government”.

In a stinging attack on the Siddaramaiah government at a public rally here on February 4, Modi had accused it of setting new records in corruption and asserted that the countdown for its exit has begun.

“The Congress government is at the exit gate,” Modi had said, while dubbing the Siddaramaiah rule a “10 per cent commission government.”

In his second rally this month in poll-bound Karnataka, Modi said the Congress, wherever it was in power, were acting like “bumps” in the path of speedy progress and the party only cared for power and not for aspirations of the people.

“Every day, a new scam, new corruption and new allegations are coming up against their leader, ministers, or some government schemes,” Modi said, chiding the Siddaramaiah government at the chief minister’s home town of Mysuru.

Modi also accused the Congress of spreading “lies and repeated lies” and asked the people to question them over their rule in the country for several decades.

“They think that by telling lies, repeated lies, loudly and continuously spreading lies not for a day but for months on end, wherever they go, the people will believe them....the country will never accept your lies.”

Modi also announced a six-lane 117 km Bengaluru-Mysuru national highway project at a cost of Rs 6,400 crore and a world class new satellite railway station at Mysuru at an investment of Rs 800 crore.

Meanwhile, Modi said saints and seers have always served the Indian society and made a positive difference to it.

He said the strength of Indian society lay in its ability to change with times.

“Many people believe that in our country there is greater religious temperament than social temperament. This perception is not correct.

“Even today we have such a great tradition of saints making relentless efforts....whether it is towards providing health, education or de-addiction,” he told a gathering here at the famous Jain pilgrimage centre.

He was speaking after inaugurating the newly carved 630 steps at Vindhyagiri Hill where the statue of Lord Gommateshwara Bahubali stands. The steps have been carved by the Archaeological Survey of India. — PTI