PM breaks silence on Mahadayi row, blames Congress
BENGALURU: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday broke his silence over the Mahadayi water sharing dispute, accusing chief minister Siddaramaiah of instigating people and playing with their emotions ahead of the May 12 assembly elections.
The PM was addressing a rally in Gadag town, which is the epicentre of an agitation demanding the diversion of water from the Mahadayi to the arid districts of the Mumbai-karnataka region. The dispute involving the states of Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka is being heard by a tribunal.
“These Congress leaders are very proficient at lying. The biggest example is the politics on Mahadayi. In 2007, when there were elections in Goa, then Congress president Sonia Gandhi told people that water will not be shared with Karnataka,” Modi claimed. “The CM (Siddaramaiah) might not remember this because he was not with the Congress in 2007,” Modi said.
Siddaramaiah had joined the Congress in 2006, coming over from the Janata Dal (Secular).
“Now that it is non-existent in Goa, the Congress is trying to instigate people here (in Karnataka). That is why instead of resolving the problem, they committed a sin of placing the matter before a tribunal,” Modi alleged.
The matter was referred to a tribunal in 2010 by the UPA government, after strong protests from Goa, then ruled by the BJP.
“But this problem has been given to you by Congress, and I don’t want this to continue, but want a consensus through talks.”
Modi thanked the people of Karnataka for voting the BJP to power in 2008. “I appeal to you to create history again. The Congress has become small and after the results from Karnataka on May 15, the Indian National Congress should become PPP Congress, (Punjab, Puducherry and Parivar Congress),” he said.
Modi also took a potshot at Janata Dal (Secular) and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, who, he said, had claimed in 2014 would commit suicide if Modi was elected the PM. “I told him he is a veteran leader and shouldn’t commit suicide, and live for 100 years to work for the society.”
Modi said if there was anyone that was trying to help the Congress, it was the JD(S). “The Congress and the JD(S) have an alliance behind the scenes, otherwise what is the reason for the two parties to fight in Tumakuru when they are in an alliance in Bengaluru corporation,” he said. “Congress must come clean on the alliance in Bengaluru, and stop making fools out of people.”
Interestingly, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had accused the JD(S) of being the ‘B’ team of BJP, and said the ‘S’ in its name stood for Sangh and not Secular.
Modi also addressed a rally in Shivamogga town, where he said the people must vote out the Congress because of the “insults” it had been levelling on his party’s chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa, who also hails from the same district.
The PM also made a veiled attack against energy minister DK Shivakumar, whose house was raided by the Income Tax department in August last year.
Speaking at his final rally of the day in Mangaluru city, Modi accused the state government of deciding the fate of criminals on the basis of their religion.