Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that the Congress government had promoted the “ease of doing murder” culture in the State in the last five years. He was speaking at a public meeting as part of the campaign of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the State Assembly elections at the MGM College Grounds, here.
Mr. Modi said that in the last five years 24 BJP workers had been killed in the State. They had been killed for raising their voice against the State government. But the State government had remained passive about it. “Is it wrong to hold differing opinions in a democracy? There is no place for violence in a democracy,” he said.
In contrast, the Union government was promoting the ease of doing business in the country. Due to the efforts of the Union government, the country had jumped several places high in the ease of doing business index, he said.
Mr. Modi said that the Congress government in the State only signified lawlessness and intolerance. The Lokayukta was assaulted in his office in broad daylight. Police officers were being harassed. Women were not safe in the State. Meanwhile, the Union government had issued an ordinance providing death sentence if a minor was raped, he said.
Alluding to the problem of sand shortage, Mr. Modi said that the sand mafia had been given a free run in the State. The sand mafia could run riot because it was being backed by the people in power. Due to this, poor people could not even build their houses. “This government which is looting people should go,” he said.
The State government was inactive and there had hardly been any development worth the name in the State in the last five years. A few decades ago, Karnataka was known as a “glorious State” because of its development track record. But now its glory was in tatters. The 90-km Kadur-Chikkamagaluru railway line project was progressing at a slow pace because the State government had not made land available for it. “If the State does not provide the land, there was little the Centre could do,” he said.
Pointing that Udupi and Dakshina Kannada were the hub of banking, Mr. Modi said that some banks were nationalised for political purposes some decades ago. But the move had not benefited the farmers and young entrepreneurs. The poor could not go to the doorsteps of the banks. But through the Jan Dhan Yojana, nearly 40 % of the population had been brought under the banking cover.
“Though we had said that the poor could maintain ‘zero balance’ in their accounts, they had deposited ₹ 80,000 crore. So too under the Mudra Yojana, the young entrepreneurs had access to loans to set up their enterprises,” Mr. Modi said.
