‘Modi is not qualified to talk about corruption in Karnataka’

The Congress, led by Siddaramaiah, has ensured that the Karnataka government was politically, financially, socially stable, unlike governments between 2008 and 2013. There has been no scams or scandals and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has been able to take the party along with him.

It will be in three parts — State-specific, region-specific, and district-specific. It is for the first time that such a manifesto has been drafted for the State. In addition, the State government itself has prepared a vision document for Karnataka — Nava Karnataka Vision 2025 — which was released last week.

I am preparing a people’s manifesto with emphasis on how to transform their lives. We want Karnataka to be No 1 in terms of development, investment, job creation, IT/ BT so that it transforms their lives right from anganwadi till pre-university and higher education. We also want to encourage skill-based education in a big way. As Chairman of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission [2005-09] and with governance as my real strength, I will be to taking forward transparency in governance. Also, it was the UPA government which came out with the Right to Information Act and implemented it properly. Narendra Modi has not even appointed the Lokpal.

Will the Congress manifesto have AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits) elements too?

We want to take along all sections of society. The manifesto aims to focus on their all-round development with programmes revolving around education, scholarships, economic upliftment and to raise the standard of living.

I cannot narrate everything before the manifesto is unveiled, but the focus will be on transformative changes in five sectors: agriculture, rural development, town & cities, industry, including skill development and health, which will give importance to malnutrition. We will focus on financial prudence. As Finance Minister, Siddaramaiah has come out with the best of the budgets, year after year. There are so many welfare measures and concessions for farmers, and even then financial prudence has not been crossed. [Former CM and BJP leader BS] Yeddyurappa, on the other hand, had thrown fiscal prudence to winds when he was handling the finance portfolio as chief minister, and as deputy chief minister.

Narendra Modi should target his own party men first for corruption, and definitely not the Congress. Do you think he would have spared Karnataka, if there was even an iota of evidence? They would have unleashed agencies like the CBI and ED on the Congress government. As someone who neutralised the Lok Ayukta, do you think he [Modi] is interested in fighting corruption? This man has not appointed an Information Commissioner in Delhi; do you think he will fight corruption?

You must read Glimpses of [ World ] History by Jawaharlal Nehru and Letters from a Father to His Daughter . That is the real foundation that the Congress is standing on. How can the BJP accuse us of being anti-Hindu? One must remember that the Somnath Temple in Gujarat was rebuilt when Jawaharlal Nehru was prime minister.

The Congress had come up with Article 317-J (regional reservation in jobs and education in Karnataka) and also passed an amendment to the Constitution, particularly to help Hyderabad-Karnataka. Now, similarly, we are preparing an agenda which will allot more funds to further improve the Mumbai- Karnataka region.