In a sharp retort to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday said the real face of terrorism in Karnataka are corruption, looting, price rise and unemployment. “It is the terrorism of corruption that Karnataka and the country is burdened with,” the party general secretary said.
Addressing a huge public meeting at Moodbidri in Dakshina Kannada ahead of the May 10 Assembly election, she said BJP leaders, including Modi, always talk about extremism and national security during the elections.
Price rise, unemployment and corruption are real extremism: Priyanka
“They are not talking about your (people's) real issues. I want to tell the BJP leaders that price rise, unemployment and the 40 per cent corruption of the BJP government are the real extremism,” she said.
“Talking about dharma, national security and terrorism, the BJP leaders do not see thousands of farmers had committed suicide in Karnataka under their rule. More than 1,000 unemployed youth have taken their lives,” she alleged.
On the looting charge, she said the BJP government had plundered Rs6 lakh-crore during their rule. Medium and small industries in the state have suffered big losses after demonetisation and wrong implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) and thousands of youth were rendered jobless.
The Union government had destroyed the idea of bank nationalisation by merging four public sector banks — Syndicate Bank, Vijaya Bank, Corporation Bank and Canara Bank — which were the pride of Mangaluru, she said.
A charged-up Priyanka alleged all the airports and seaports in the country, including the New Mangalore Port, are being sold to crorepatis friends of the BJP at the Centre, thereby denying employment to thousands of local people.
She said as the BJP is busy indulging in looting the nation's wealth, they have no time to address the issues of women's development, farmers problems, price rise and the unemployment among the youth.“They don't work for the people when they are in power and visit them during the elections by preaching on dharma, terrorism and security,” she said.
Vadra promised to bring back all the people-friendly schemes of the previous Congress government in the state, including the low-cost food outlets — Indira canteens. Every promise in the guarantee card given to the people will be kept, she said.
Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh govt implemented promises immediately: Gandhi
The Congress’s poll manifesto has promised five 'guarantees' — 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti), Rs2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi), 10kg free rice to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya), and Rs3,000 a month to graduate youth and Rs1,500 for diploma holders (both in the age group of 18-25) for two years (Yuva Nidhi), along with promise of free travel for women in public transport buses — upon coming to power in the state.
She said the Congress governments in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan had implemented promises made to farmers and pensioners immediately after coming to power.
With campaigning to end Monday, the Congress is going full throttle to wrest power from the ruling BJP. The results will be declared on May 13.
Campaigning to end tomorrow
The high voltage campaign for the May 10 Assembly election in Karnataka will end on Monday as all three major political parties in the state — BJP, Congress and JD-S — are busy making their last pitch to woo the voters. The top guns of all the major political parties were on a campaign blitz across the state in the past few days, even as the ruling BJP has been striving to break the 38-year-old pattern of alternating governments and retain its southern citadel. “A government with full majority” seemed to be the favourite slogan of the leaders of all the political parties during the campaigning for the election to the 224-member Assembly.
Hanuman Chalisa chanting on Tues
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and its youth wing Bajrang Dal on Sunday said the outfits have decided to chant 'Hanuman Chalisa' on May 9 across the country, which happens to be a day before the election. According to VHP secretary general Milind Parande, the programme has been decided to invoke “Bajrang Bali (Hanuman) to give 'sadbuddhi' (good sense) to the Congress and other organisations and activists who stand to advocate for and promote the terrorists, anti-Bharat elements and anti-Hindu mindsets, so that good sense and pro-nationalist character should prevail with them”.
