New Delhi: Accusing the BJP led government of India of showing a bias against the poor and favoring capitalists, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah urged the public on Wednesday to make sure that the BJP does not receive a single vote in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections next year.
He described the BJP as “neech” (disgraceful) and asserted that the ruling party’s actions also demonstrate an indifference towards humanity, as they refused to provide rice to Karnataka for the distribution of an additional five kilograms of rice to each beneficiary under the state government’s Anna Bhagya scheme.
“When I was the CM during my previous tenure, I was giving seven kg rice free but the previous BJP government reduced it to four kg and five kg. During the assembly election, I promised that we will give an additional five kg more,” Siddaramaiah said during a ceremony to celebrate the completion of 10 years of Ksheera Bhagya scheme (under which students of government and aided schools are given milk five days a week) at Madhugiri in Tumakuru district.
The chief minister said that when the Congress government came to power, it wrote to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to supply rice for the Anna Bhagya scheme.
The FCI too assured the state government that it provide the rice, he said. “We trust them (FCI) but the Centre denied us rice. Is BJP pro-poor? They are not. We did not ask rice for free. We were ready to pay for it. When we asked for rice, they agreed and then backtracked. You have to decide how ‘neech’ (despicable) they are. They are anti-poor. They don’t have humanity,” Siddaramaiah charged.
Explaining the reason behind the GoI backtracking from supplying rice to Karnataka, the chief minister said, “Narendra Modi had said that if free rice is given to the poor people, those states will go bankrupt. We told him that we will implement the five guarantees and we will not let the state go bankrupt.”
The CM also explained that out of the five poll guarantees, four have been implemented in the state. They are ‘Shakti’ offering free bus rides to women in non-luxury government buses, ‘Gruha Lakshmi’ providing ₹2,000 to the women head of families, ‘Gruha Jyothi’ promising up to 200 units of free electricity to each household and ‘Anna Bhagya’ offering 10 kg rice to BPL families.
Explaining the five guarantees, Siddaramaiah asked people if they would vote for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. “Not a single vote should go to them (BJP) because they had said these schemes will make the state bankrupt. If we give freebies to the poor, then the state will go bankrupt? What if the money is given to Ambani and Adani? Will the country or poor prosper?” he sought to know.
Siddaramaiah stressed that while Ambani and Adani grew rich, the poor remained poor. Celebrating the completion of 10 years of the ‘Ksheera Bhagya’ scheme offering milk to 54.68 lakh government school children everyday, the chief minister said it is an internationally acclaimed scheme. According to him, milk is a complete food with maximum calcium and people of every age can drink it. Hence, the government decided to purchase milk from milk producers and give it to the children, he said.
Lauding ‘Ksheera Bhagya’, Siddaramaiah said the state government will spend more than ₹1,000 crore on the scheme.
