The current political events and history related to Karnataka echoed in the Lok Sabha on Friday during the daylong debate on the no-confidence motion against the NDA government.
Anubhava Mantapa
Home Minister Rajnath Singh invoked the name of the 12th century social reformer Basaveshwara and said the country has rich democratic ethos. The democratic roots could be traced to Anubhava Mantapa established by Basaveshwara. The Anubhava Mantapa was established much before Magna Carta (the Great Charter of Liberties), he said.
He also referred to Chandragupta Maurya, who is said to have assumed an ascetic lifestyle at Shravanabelagola, in the present-day Hassan district of the State, where Babubali’s statue is located.
Irked with innumerable historical references made by the Home Minister, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha M. Mallikarjun Kharge advised Mr. Singh not to talk about history but instead speak about their achievements in the last four years.
Earlier, Rakesh Singh, the first speaker from the BJP’s side, took a dig at the Congress veteran and said it was because of the Nehru–Gandhi family that Mr. Kharge could not become the chief ministerial face in Karnataka.
“The Congress can’t accept any government that is not run by a particular family. This no-confidence motion is nothing but an attempt to stop our victory march in 2019,” he said.
Mr. Rakesh Singh took a dig at Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s crying bout in public.
“We recently saw Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy shed tears and say that he has gulped poison in order to form the coalition with the Congress. I am not sure how many parties have to do the same if they support the motion.”
Farm loan waiver
Congress president Rahul Gandhi attacked the NDA government and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had only given the minimum support price as relief to farmers while the coalition government in Karnataka had waived farmers’ loans worth ₹34,000 crore. The Congress has been demanding wavier of farm loans by the Centre.
Trinamool Congress member Sugata Roy said the BJP had lost many byelections and even the Karnataka Assembly elections. “The Prime Minister has become a travelling statesman,” he said.
