After “extorting money” from the people for eight years under the old GST system, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is now patting himself, calling GST reduction a “Deepavali gift,” Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said at a function here on Tuesday.
People of Karnataka have lost ₹15,000 crore owing to GST over eight years and the development of Bengaluru is being undertaken at a cost of ₹1.2 lakh crore without any financial support from the Centre, he said.
Mr. Siddaramaiah also criticised the BJP over the Bengaluru metro project. “We are the ones who are paying 87% of the money for the metro. But the BJP is lying by saying that the metro is a Central project. Why are you voting for such fake people?,” he asked.
Let MPs speak up
He further questioned MPs from the city. “Has MP P.C. Mohan spoken on your behalf in Parliament? MP Tejasvi Surya – I call him Amavasya Surya. Has he spoken about the injustice and betrayal being done to the State till today? Have Ministers Shobha Karandlaje and H.D. Kumaraswamy spoken even for a single day about the betrayal of the State by the Modi government?”
The Chief Minister remarked that when the BJP was in power, not a single new road was built. He also took a dig at BJP leaders, arguing that no one, including R. Ashok and B.Y. Vijayendra had any say of their own and have to follow the diktats of the RSS.
BJP hits back
Meanwhile, hitting out at Mr. Siddaramaiah for accusing the Centre of meting out injustice to Karnataka and trying to show the BJP-JD(S) MPs in a poor light by questioning their silence in the Lok Sabha, the BJP urged the Chief Minister to first list his own achievements since he took over.
“Before pointing the finger at the Centre, let the Chief Minister and his ministerial colleagues tell the people of the State if they have taken any new schemes for them in the last two-and-a-half years,” Mr. Vijayendra told presspersons in Bengaluru.
“Except chanting the names of guarantee schemes, they have done nothing for the development of the State. Their only achievement is converting Karnataka into an ATM for the Congress high command,” he alleged.
