Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Monday strongly criticised the statement of Congress president Sonia Gandhi who had labelled the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Karnataka as “corrupt.”
Talking to The Hindu here, Mr. Yeddyurappa said: “Let the scams in the United Progressive Alliance government be first probed before Congress leaders talk about the State governments run by other political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Congress leadership has lost its moral right to talk about others and people of the country are aware of the mismanagement by the Centre.
“How relevant is it for Ms. Sonia Gandhi to comment on Karnataka when the Union government and the governments of several Congress-ruled States are involved in a series of scams misusing thousands of crores of public money. However, it is another matter that I have got the highest regard for Ms. Sonia Gandhi and do not want to react to her statements.”
He said the UPA government was already facing several problems — the 2G spectrum scam involving a loss of Rs 1.76 crore to the exchequer, Commonwealth Games swindle involving about Rs. 600 crore and the Adarsh housing scam in Mumbai among others.
The Parliament was not functioning for nearly a month because of the UPA government's refusal to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the 2G spectrum scam and “this is an insult to democracy.”
Mr. Yeddyurappa said that during the NDA regime an all-out effort was made to enable the country host the Commonwealth Games.
A huge amount of money was allotted to develop infrastructure but instead of doing that the present government ‘misused the funds.'
In Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan resigned “since there was personal involvement.” In Karnataka the issue was different, Mr. Yeddyurappa claimed.
Published - December 14, 2010 02:20 am IST
