Raising the Lingayat religion issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday accused the Congress of trying to divide the community to gain political mileage.
Addressing an election rally here, he said that whenever the Congress faces a challenge to its survival, it plays division politics.
“During the last Assembly elections, the Congress played this politics of dividing two bothers from the mother [Lingayat and Veerashaiva from Hindu]. They tried to create a rift between the siblings,” he said.
Going further, indirectly referring to Home Minister M.B. Patil, he said that one of the Ministers had openly admitted that he tried to divide the Lingayat community. “Today, two Ministers of the same government are fighting over the issue,” he said, in an apparent reference to the differences that have cropped up between Mr. Patil and Water Resources Minister D.K. Shivakumar over the Lingayat issue. Mr. Modi cautioned people to stay alert of the “divisive politics” of the Congress.
Referring to Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and his father H.D. Deve Gowda turning emotional during several poll campaigns, Mr. Modi called it a drama being played out by Mr. Kumaraswamy. “This drama has been taking place for a year. The drama has lots of emotion and revenge while the emotion does not seem to end,” he said, adding that during this time, the State’s development had completely stopped with no work taking place for farmers and on irrigation.
Claiming that he was running a “ mazboot ” (strong) government at the Centre, Mr. Modi said that if people want to see a strong government, they should look towards New Delhi, but if they wanted to see a “ majboor ” (helpless) government, they should look at Bengaluru. He also accused the Janata Dal (S) of misusing tax payers’ money for its election campaign.
He said the Congress always liked helpless government as it wanted helpless Chief Ministers and Prime Ministers in power.
He also expressed confidence that the coalition government would fall soon and that even the JD(S) was aware of this. “Knowing this, the party is trying to make as much money as possible before the government collapses,” he said.
