Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday turned the tables on the State’s ruling Congress for maligning the name of Ballari and equating it to a city of looters and plunderers.
Addressing a public rally and campaigning for the BJP’s candidates in Ballari and Koppal on Thursday, Modi said the Congress government had, instead of ushering in development, shown the historically significant Ballari in poor light.
He was referring to the Congress’ attacks on the BJP for giving election tickets to the Reddy brothers and their associates, who were indicted by the Karnataka Lokayukta and subsequently jailed for corruption in mining-related cases.
Modi, in his 45-minute speech, said that the Congress had by bad-mouthing Ballari, also maligned Hampi, which was the capital of the erstwhile Vijayanagara kingdom, and the birthplace of the revered Vidyaranya, Kanakadasa and Valmiki, and Lord Hanuman.
“By portraying Ballari in poor light, Congress party has maligned these great sons of soil,” he said.
The Vijayanagara kingdom was a model State with much natural resources and wealth, said Modi.
“The Centre recently issued the new ₹50 note with the picture of Hampi,” he said, to thunderous applause.
Later, taking on the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government, Modi said: “The Siddarupiya government in Karnataka has led the State into a debt trap, while the Congress’ ministers and its leaders filled their pockets with cash.”
“We need to ask them for an account of the plundering of the state on May 12 and vote for a change,” he said.
Local economy
The Prime Minister said the Centre had brought out a new mining policy whereby 33 per cent of revenue would be reserved for the local area.
“My government instituted a district mineral fund and it later became Prime Minister Khanija Fund. Karnataka received ₹9,000 crore. But it is shocking to see a sleeping chief minister and a sleeping government.”
“Here I want to ask what happened to this fund and how much was spent. After probing, I got to know only ₹45 lakh has been spent. This is shocking. This could have been used for desilting of Tungabhadra Dam for the benefit of the district’s farmers,” he said.
Raising the issue of Ballari’s industrialisation, he said the district had great potential in textiles and SMEs. The Ballari jeans industry, which is well-known, has not been properly tapped.
“The district should come forward and utilise the new textile policy and seek part of the ₹6,000-crore allocation to improve this cluster,” he pointed out.
Modi took a dig at former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, who had promised a ₹3,000-crore development package for Ballari. Like her party, she, too, had betrayed the people of Ballari, Modi alleged.
Engaging the over-enthusiastic crowd, Modi made them thrice chant: “ Ballari ka vikas hoga, Karnataka ka vikas hoga . Karnataka ka vikas hoga, puri Hindustan ka vikas hoga (If Ballari progresses, Karnataka does, too. If Karnataka develops, India will, too.”
‘Not a Baniya party’
Modi took a dig at the Congress for portraying the BJP as a party of Banias and Brahmins, and said the BJP was above caste and religious lines as a tea-seller like him, who belonged to a backward community, had become the Prime Minister.
The campaign against the BJP was unfounded as the party had also made a Dalit, Ram Nath Kovind, the country’s President.
Criticising Siddaramaiah for invoking the issue of Kannada pride, Modi said the tag attributed to BJP as a ‘North Indian’ party was unfounded after it ensured the election of Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, hailing from Andhra Pradesh, and the appointment of a Tamil, Nirmala Sitharaman, as the country’s first woman defence minister.