Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Thursday that the Narendra Modi government has neglected farmers and was only serving the corporate class.
He was speaking at a public meeting organised for the coalition candidate Madhu Bangarappa of Janata Dal (Secular), for bypolls to Shivamogga parliamentary seat. Byndoor Assembly constituency in Udupi district comes under this parliamentary seat.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said that when he was the Chief Minister, he had waived farm loans from cooperative societies to the tune of ₹8,165 crore. Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has decided to waived loans worth ₹48,000 crore. But in spite of several requests, the Union government has not waived any loans of farmers. It has only conveniently waived debts of the corporate sector to the tune of ₹2,38,000 crore.
He said that the Prime Minister had assured to bring black money stashed in foreign accounts to the country. But so far, nothing has come back. Instead, wilful defaulters such as Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi have been allowed to leave the country. Rafale deal was the biggest scam with regard to Defence matters in the history of the country, he said.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said the BJP was only interested in fanning communal tension and was portraying itself as the sole custodian of Hinduism. “Am I not a Hindu? But can you fill the stomach of poor people only in the name of Hindutva or stoking religious passions,” he questioned. Both B.S. Yeddyurappa, MP for Shivamogga for the last four-and-a-half years, and before that his son B.S. Raghavendra, MP for five years, had failed to bring a single development project, he said.
Later, speaking to presspersons, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the tie-up with JD(S) will continue for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls also.
