Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Kapil Sibal on Friday referred to Karnataka as a “laboratory of corruption”, LoC in short.
Addressing presspersons at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office in the run up to the Sunday’s Assembly elections, Mr. Sibal indulged in what he called “black humour”, targeting the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Ridiculing the BJP and the former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, Mr. Sibal said: “Following the BJP rule in Karnataka, CME means “corruption made easy” and DP means “disruptive politics”. After Yeddyurappa’s rule, there is a new word in the English dictionary called Yeddyuruption.”
He went on to say Bangalore’s image had changed from “GC to GB” and that meant green city to garbage city. “TDS in BJP’s terminology is triple double standards, one for yourself, one for the State and one for the Centre.”
But when he was asked to come out with similar abbreviations for 2G and 3G scams, Mr. Sibal retorted: “How can I indulge in black humour against myself.”
Stating that the BJP and the Janata Dal (Secular) were two faces of the same coin, he said: “While they are obsessed with power, we are obsessed with empowering the poor.”
He said the JD(S) should change its name to “JD (Saffron)” as its ideologies were no different from that of the BJP’s.
“People have seen the true faces of these two parties and its leaders. They will reject these parties in the Assembly polls and bring Congress to power,” he said.
Coming down heavily on the BJP, Mr. Sibal ridiculed Narendra Modi’s Gujarat development model. “It is nothing but public relations aimed at manipulating the mindset of people,” he said.
Pointing out that the BJP government had reduced the State to complete penury, he claimed: “Karnataka’s debt has gone up from Rs. 49,000 crore in 2005 to Rs. 1.2 lakh crore in 2011-12, which is more than its budget.”
