Siddaramaiah protest: Siddaramaiah to lead Karnataka’s protest in Delhi on Wed; BJP to pay back with its own protest in Bengaluru

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will lead a dharna of Karnataka’s ministers and lawmakers at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Wednesday on alleged lack of funding support from the Centre as the Congress seeks to make it a major campaign issue and put the BJP on the defensive in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls.
The CM, at a media-conference, accused the BJP regime at the Centre of being unfair to Karnataka despite his state contributing the second highest tax revenue after Maharashtra. The Centre, he added, returned only about Rs 12 for every Rs 100 collected from the state and retained the rest.
This is not a political protest by the Congress against the BJP, but by a southern state against the step-motherly treatment and discrimination by the Centre. He also urged the BJP and JDS MPs and MLAs to join the protest to lend their voice to the state’s cause.
The BJP has rejected the CM’s invite and has planned a protest against the Siddaramaiah government in Bengaluru on Wednesday. BJP leader Basavaraj Bommai called the Congress party’s proposed dharna a political stunt designed to cover up the Congress government’s failures. Karnataka, the former CM said, got more funds from the Centre during the NDA regime than the earlier UPA regime.

Large chunks of funds, Siddaramaiah said, collected from the south were going to the North Indian states. The government was inviting all parties to join the protest to get justice for Kannadigas.

The 15^th Finance Commission set up after Narendra Modi took over as PM slashed the state’s share from 4.71% to 3.64% which led to a loss of Rs 45,000 in four years. In five years, the state would lose Rs 62,098 crore, Siddaramaiah added.

FM causes max injustice

The CM blamed Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for the “maximum injustice” Karnataka had suffered though she had been elected to the Rajya Sabha from the State. She had rejected about Rs 11,000 crore of the state’s claim, he said.
Pralhad Joshi and Shobha Karandlaje, who are union ministers as well as the other MPs elected from the State have their eyes shut to the injustice and don’t speak up in the Lok Sabha. Former CMs BS Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai don’t open their mouth with prime minister Narendra Modi, while Opposition leader R Ashoka could hardly understand issues.

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