Over two dozen BJP workers were killed in Karnataka, what was their crime?: Modi in Udupi

Udupi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday accused the Congress government in Karnataka of initiating the culture of “ease of doing murder”, as he launched the second leg campaign in the state for the Assembly elections.

Modi claimed over two dozen BJP workers were killed under the Congress government in Karnataka in political violence. “What was their crime? It was that they were opposed to your views, they raised their voice for the people of Karnataka. We want to encourage the ease of doing business, they (the Congress) have initiated the culture of ease of doing murder,” he said at a rally in Udupi.

He asked the audience whether or not the Congress should be banished from Karnataka and the country, and should not the mentality of political violence end. A lustily cheering audience responded with shouts of “yes, yes”.

Modi also referred to Mahatma Gandhi’s insistence on disbanding the Congress after Independence, and said that with the party facing defeat after defeat in the last four years, the Father of the Nation’s “last dream” was about to materialise with its decimation in the Karnataka polls.

Speaking about the pioneering work done in the banking sector in Udupi, Modi said despite the nationalisation of banks, poor remained out of the banking system until his government started helming the country.

“There was a time when the poor had no bank accounts, they could not even think of going to a bank. They were out of the economic mainstream, out of the banking system. We started the Jan Dhan scheme for them. The earlier Congress governments allowed a handful of people to loot banks, but denied loans to the youth, farmer, the poor,” he said.

He said the state government was patronising the sand mafia and this prompted the high court to pass strictures against it. “Should not a government that loots even sand be eased out?” he asked.

Addressing a rally at Chikkodi in Belagavi district later, Modi accused Congress of playing divisive politics, apparently hinting at the Siddaramaiah government’s recommendation for religious minority status for Lingayats.

“The Congress is creating a rift between brothers, between north and south, spreading division between high and low, inflicting poison of casteism, and spreading lies,” he said. The Congress, he said, is a party which has “tinkered” (khilwad) with Constitution the most while “spreading the lie” that the BJP will change the Constitution and do away with reservation.