Modi, Shah are the reason for COVID-19 spread, economic crisis: Kharge

He accused Modi and the BJP of indulging in politics of hatred

PTI11_22_2019_000265B

Rajya Sabha member Mallikarjun Kharge urged people to defeat the RSS, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah to save the country from ruin. He was speaking at Pratijna Dina, the oath taking ceremony of D.K. Shivakumar as KPCC chief, in Bengaluru on Thursday.

"Having a prime minister like Narendra Modi and home minister like Amit Shah is the reason for the COVID-19 and economic crises. The flawed policy of the duo has ruined the country but they neither admit their mistakes nor listen to the opposition parties. They are building their image and the party on lies. The RSS is behind them, and unless we fight them, there is no future for the common man and youths, who clap and overlook Modi's flaws," Kharge said.

He accused Modi and the BJP of indulging in politics of hatred. "They are always bad mouthing Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. Even today, they have asked Priyanka Gandhi to vacate her residence in Lutyens.”

Hitting back at the BJP for targeting Rajiv Gandhi Foundation over Chinese donations, Kharge asked why the donations to PM-CARES fund, floated by Modi, were being kept a secret. "Chinese firms give funds to NGOs and they gave it to RGF too. But there was a hue and cry over a donation of Rs 20 lakh made to RGF. But PM-CARES has received crores from Chinese firms like Huawei, TikTok, OnePlus, and Paytm among others. Is PM-CARES fund constitutional? There is no transparency and they don't reveal any information about the trust or the fund even under RTI," alleged Kharge.

Slamming Modi's statement denying Chinese incursion, Kharge demanded to know how 20 Indian jawans got killed, 73 injured and 10 were released by Chinese forces. "Modi claimed that no one had entered the Indian territory or crossed the border or captured any post. Then what transpired at the Galwan Valley? When Rahul Gandhi asked these questions, neither Modi nor Rajnath Singh had any answers," said Kharge.

Blaming the Centre for the spread of COVID-19 and economic crisis, Kharge said as many as six crore MSMEs were shut down affecting 11 crore workers. Migrant workers were on the streets. "When I was the labour minister, there was Rs 30,000 crore in the workers' welfare fund. The Modi government is spending that money now," said Kharge.

Former chief minister Siddaramaiah too launched a tirade against Modi, saying there was a long list of Modi's "failures", which needs to be brought before the people. "No PM has traveled the world as much as Modi. Yet, no country is with us today, be it Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal or China," said Siddaramaiah, who targeted both the state and Union government over their COVID-19 response.

"There's no bigger liar and a hypocrite prime minister than Modi in Indian politics. Coronavirus entered the country in January. But the Modi government did not spend a single penny. He ordered a hasty lockdown, which inconvenienced the poor. The economic package of Rs 20 lakh crore had a cash outflow of only Rs 1.40 lakh crore, which is not even one per cent of the GDP. Many countries have allocated 10-30 per cent of their GDP to fight COVID-19."

Siddaramaiah noted that it was the Manmohan Singh government which brought the "farsighted schemes" like Food Security Act and MNREGA, which saved the day for the poor during COVID-19 crisis.

The former chief minister accused Modi of polarising people even during a crisis like COVID-19. "Modi blamed Tablighi Jamaat for COVID outbreak and tried to polarise people. Did America or Europe see COVID outbreak due to Tablighi?," asked Siddaramaiah, adding that his party had a big responsibility to fight the "lies and deceit" of the Modi government.

"Modi implements the RSS agenda and as long as the RSS does backseat driving, there will be no hope for the poor in this country. They don't tolerate other religions. They pitch one religion against the other. They divide the people. Abrogation of Article 370, CAA are all part of their communal agenda," said Siddaramaiah.

Siddaramaiah targets CM

The BJP government in Karnataka is not paying heed to the opposition leaders, alleged Siddaramaiah. "I wrote around 20 letters to the chief minister on steps to be taken to tackle COVID. But there was no response. The virus is now fast spreading in the community. They purchased MLAs and captured power. They have failed on all fronts but are refusing to step down," said the former CM.

"Yediyurappa came to power through the backdoor. Ramesh Kumar (former speaker) disqualified rebel MLAs to uphold the Constitution. Our sole aim now is to bring Congress to power. We have to uproot the BJP to save the country," said Siddaramaiah.

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