Holding the ruling BJP at the Centre and the State responsible for skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, the “unprecedented unemployment” and communal disharmony, Sudheendra Kulkarni, a political analyst who had worked as an advisor to former Prime Minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and T.N. Prakash Kammardi, an agricultural economist and former chairman of Karnataka Agricultural Prices Commission, called upon the people to defeat the saffron party and elect Congress in the imminent Assembly Elections in the State.
“BJP claims that a double-engine government – single party in power at the Centre and the State – would help for development. Our experience showed that it did not facilitate the development of the State through BJP is in power at the State and the Centre. It failed to control the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities. It failed to provide jobs to the youth. It failed to maintain peace, harmony and order in the society,” Mr. Kulkarni said at a media conference in Kalaburagi on Monday.
Criticising BJP’s approach of One Nation, One Party and One leader, Mr. Kulkarni said that the approach was opposed to the very idea of India’s pluralism and federal structure.
“BJP wants to destroy the socio-cultural diversities and make the country a unitary system ruled by a dictator, just like we see one in China. It wants a double-engine government driven by a single driver. It goes against India’s tradition. It goes against the very concept of democracy and the Indian Constitution. We should not allow this to happen. Ours is a multiparty Parliamentary system. Democracy is its foundation. People are free to elect any party in the State or at the Centre. It is the duty of the Union Government to treat all the State governments equally irrespective of the party in rule. But, the BJP is threatening to cut the Union Government’s assistance to Karnataka if BJP is defeated here,” Mr. Kulkarni said.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP often give slogan of Sab Ka Sath and Sab Ka Vikas,” he added, “but they have not given a single ticket to the Muslim community which accounts for around 13% of the State’s population. It shows the hollowness of the slogan”.
Mr. Kammardi upheld the Congress manifesto which promised for giving legal backing to MSP [Minimum Support Price MSP] withdrawing anti-farmer legislation and held that the moves would stabilise farmers’ income.
Both Mr. Kulkarni and Mr. Kammaradi appealed to the people to elect the maximum number of Congress candidates leaving no room for BJP to poach elected representatives from other parties as part of its “Operation Lotus” after the election.
