Siddaramaiah slams Nadda for lying, calling Karnataka govt bribe-free

Koppal: Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday slammed BJP national president J P Nadda for allegedly lying to the people by calling the BJP government in the State ‘bribe-free’.

Siddaramaiah’s statement came a day after Nadda at a public meeting in Koppal said all parties, barring the BJP, work for commission.

“After BJP came to power in the State three-and-a-half years ago, except loot, no developmental work took place. You are lying, Nadda when you call the BJP government a ‘bribe-free government’. Are you not ashamed?” the Congress leader said at a public meeting here. The Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly ridiculed Nadda’s statement on Thursday that the Chief Ministers (belonging to BJP), including the incumbent Basavaraj Bommai and his immediate predecessor B S Yediyurappa, go to the people with report cards.

“You ask BJP leaders to go to the people with report card but what development did you (BJP) carry out in the State? Yet, you call yourself a double-engine government,” Siddaramaiah said.

The Congress leader alleged that there is a 40 percent commission government in Karnataka, which is known to everyone in the State. The contractor association president, too, had said the Ministers charge 40 percent commission,  he added.

“Even the walls of Vidhana Soudha are whispering that yours is a corrupt government. There is a bribe for recruitment, transfer, promotion, and posting. They not only collect money in government schemes,” the Leader of the Opposition said.

In this context, Siddaramaiah recalled that a contractor Santosh Patil earlier this year allegedly died by suicide as he could not pay a bribe of 40 percent for civil work.

The Congress leader claimed that differences have cropped up between Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and his predecessor Yediyurappa.

“Yediyurappa was simply removed from the post of the chief minister and in his place Bommai was installed because the BJP wanted someone who can dance to the tune of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh,” he charged.

Siddaramaiah likened Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a headmaster and Union Home Minister Amit Shah as the assistant headmaster before who people had to stand with their hands tied, as no one has the courage.