In first poll rally in 2 yrs, Sonia attacks Modi over intolerance

KARNATAKA CAMPAIGN UPA chairperson says the Modi govt has failed farmers, the youth and the middle class

BENGALURU: Speaking at her first election rally in two years, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of intolerance and discriminating against Congress-ruled Karnataka, questioning his promise of “sabka saath, sabka vikas”.

With two days left for campaigning, the former Congress president targeted the prime minister, who is leading the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’S charge in the southern state that votes for a new assembly on May 12. “Modiji is obsessed with Congress-free India. Leave Congressfree India, he cannot tolerate anyone,” Gandhi said.

The two squared off at separate rallies in Vijayapura in north Karnataka as Modi criss-crossed the state to address three public meetings during the day.

Modi might be a good speaker but speeches can’t fight hunger, Gandhi said. “If his oratory can fill hungry stomachs, he must speak more often. Speeches cannot fill the stomach of the hungry. Speeches cannot empower women, cure those suffering from diseases, create employment.”

Karnataka is the biggest of the four states the Congress is in power. It is also the only southern state where the BJP has had a government and the party is keen to replicate the success of 2008 ahead of the 2019 general election.

Gandhi accused the Modi government of discriminating “against our government in Karnataka. Is this your sabka saath, sabka vikas (together with all, development for all)?” She said the Modi government had failed farmers, youth and the middle class. “Modiji what did you do for the security of women, children, backward classes, Dalits and minorities,” Gandhi said.

Modi, on his part, kept up the offensive, hitting out at irrigation minister MB Patil, medical education minister Sharan Prakash Patil and mining minister Vinay Kulkarni for trying to “divide a sect” and divert attention from the state’s drought, farm crisis and alleged mining mafia. The three leaders were at the forefront of the demand for a separate religion for Lingayats, which the state government approved weeks before the election was called. The BJP has opposed the decision as an attempt to divide Hindus. “These three ministers weren’t doing their work. But to save their seats they were hatching a conspiracy to divide the people,” Modi said.

He repeatedly referred to Basaveshwara, the 12th century reformer whose teachings are followed by Lingayats who have a significant presence in north Karnataka. At a rally in Koppal in central Karnataka, PM said the Congress was pitting “brother against brother” to win elections.

He ended the day with a public meeting in Bengaluru, targeting the Congress over corruption and what he said was dynastic politics. Responding to the PM’S remarks, SM Jamdar of Jagatika Lingayat Mahasabha, who was part of the Lingayat stir, said it was not the Congress but Modi who was politicising the move.

State BJP spokesperson S Prakash said Gandhi had no right to speak about farmer distress. “If there is agrarian distress this is because it was not addressed during the 10 years of the UPA government,” he said.

Gandhi should direct her questions at CM Siddaramaiah as Karnataka was the state with the most acute farm distress, he said. “She must demand from him why over 3,000 farmers committed suicide in five years,” Prakash said.