'Are you now trying to steal Nandini from us?,' Siddaramaiah asks Modi
Bengaluru, Apr 9: Continuing his offensive against the ruling BJP, after Amul announced its plans to sell milk and curd in the Bengaluru market, Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Sunday tweeted asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was visiting Karnataka on Sunday, whether the purpose of his visit was "to loot the state".
Alleging that the State's milk production had been affected since the day Union Cooperative Minister Amit Shah spoke about the possibility of merging the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) with Amul, the former Chief Minister in a series of tweets asked the Prime Minister what his role had been in this.
Amul's move is being seen by many, especially opposition parties, as a threat to KMF's famed dairy brand 'Nandini'. They also see it as an attempt to trample upon KMF, amid a narrative around its merger with Amul.
"Is your purpose of coming to Karnataka to give to Karnataka or to loot from Karnataka? You have already stolen banks, ports and airports from Kannadigas. Are you now trying to steal Nandini (KMF) from us?" Siddaramaiah asked.
"It was Gujarat's Baroda Bank that subsumed our Vijaya Bank. Ports and Airports were handed over to Gujarat's Adani. Now, Amul from Gujarat is planning to eat our KMF (Nandini). Mr Narendra Modi, Are we the enemies for Gujaratis?"
Instead of giving 2 crore jobs a year to youths, Narendra Modi took away the jobs of Kannadigas from our banks, ports and airports, he further said, adding that "Now Karnataka BJP wants to hurt the prospects of our farmers by giving KMF to Amul."
Modi was in Mysuru and Chamarajanagara districts to attend an event commemorating 50 years of 'Project Tiger'.
The attacks from Siddaramaiah came despite Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday clarifying in this regard. Calling 'Nandini' the pride of Karnataka, and stating that his government had taken all kinds of measures to make it number one at the national level, Bommai said, "Nandini's market reach is wide, there is no need to fear Amul."
Congress politicising everything is not in the interest of the state, he had said. "We are also going to other states and marketing....we will do all that is required to put Amul behind in the competition."
State Cooperation Minister S T Somashekar on Sunday reiterated that there was no proposal to merge KMF with Amul.
"If Amul sells milk online at Rs 57 per litre, we sell it at Rs 39. We are sending our products to Tamil Nadu and other states," he said, adding that it was impossible to erase the Nandini brand.
State BJP General Secretary C N Ashwathnarayan criticised former Chief Ministers Siddaramaiah of Congress and H D Kumaraswamy of JDS for making "irresponsible statements" on the issue.
Stating that it was clear that Amul was trying to indulge in unnecessary competition with KMF and was planning to trample Nandini day by day, Kumaraswamy had said "Unhealthy competition between well-known sister organisations in the cooperative sector is not in anyone's interest. KMF directly buys milk from farmers through cooperative societies in thousands of villages in the state."
Prime Minister @narendramodi avare,
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) April 9, 2023
Is your purpose of coming to Karnataka is to give to Karnataka or to loot from Karnataka?
You have already stolen banks, ports & airports from Kannadigas. Are you now trying to steal Nandini (KMF) from us?#AnswerMadiModi #SaveNandini pic.twitter.com/LooivhuEn3
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
