Congress 'Gangotri of corruption', don't need their certificate: CM Bommai
Bengaluru, Jul 27: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday called Congress a "Gangotri (fountainhead) of corruption" and said he doesn't need a certificate from the opposition party, as he completes one year in office.
He was reacting to Congress on Tuesday giving a "zero" score for his government, and calling 'Janotsava' (festival of people), the event organised to mark the occasion at Doddaballapur on July 28, as "Bhrashtotsava" (festival of corruption). The event would be inaugurated by BJP national president J P Nadda.
"Congress is Gangotri of corruption, their current and former national presidents are daily attending inquiries in cases relating to corruption, their state president too has faced such inquiries. We need not learn lessons from them, people are aware of things," Bommai said in response to a question.
Speaking to reporters here, he said the Congress has no right to speak on corruption.
"Let them share details about at least one instance of corruption, I will get a fair probe done. Unnecessarily, they are indulging in hit and run. You will get to know about Congress' corruption in the days to come... I don't need Congress' certificate, people will give us the certificate," he added.
Congress leaders D K Shivakumar, Siddaramaiah and B K Hariprasad, who held a joint press conference on Tuesday, had alleged that sowing the seeds of hatred and destroying harmony were the only achievements of Bommai administration, under which large-scale corruption has taken place.
They attacked the government, accusing it of having failed in all aspects.
CM Bommai said at the 'Janotsava', pro-people work of his government and its reach to beneficiaries will be highlighted.
The Chief Minister said, "They (section of Congress) are doing 'Siddaramotsava' (Siddaramaiah's 75th birthday bash next month), it is a sign of personality cult to project an individual, but ours is to project people and what is being done for them."
"Their utsava (festival) is about an individual, for individual gains and with selfish motives, while ours is about the people, this is what has to be done in a democracy," he added.
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Sheikh Hasina should be allowed to stay in India as long as she wants: Mani Shankar Aiyar
Kolkata, Jan 12: Former career diplomat, ex-union minister and Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar said that deposed Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina should be allowed to stay in India as long as she wants.
Expressing happiness that Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri went to Dhaka last month and held discussions with the authorities there, Aiyar told PTI on the sidelines of the 16th Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival that the talks should be continuous and New Delhi needs to establish ministerial contacts with the interim government of Bangladesh.
About demands by Bangladesh to extradite Hasina, he said, "I hope we will never disagree that Sheikh Hasina has done a lot of good for us. I am glad she was given refuge. I think we should be her host as long as she wants, even if it is for all her life."
Hasina, 77, has been living in India since August 5 when she fled Bangladesh following a massive student-led protest that toppled her 16-year regime.
The Congress leader said that it is true that minority Hindus in Bangladesh are being attacked, but mostly it is because they are supporters of Hasina.
“They (reports about attacks on Hindus) are true but exaggerated because many of the conflicts are more about settlement of political differences," he said on Saturday.
Earlier during a question hour session, Aiyar said that Pakistanis are much like Indians, but only the accident of partition made them a different country.
“There exists much more difference in me as a Tamil and my wife as a Punjabi, than between her and a Pakistani Punjabi,” he said.
Taking a jibe at the Narendra Modi regime, the Congress leader claimed, “We have the courage to undertake surgical strike but this government does not have the courage to sit across the table with them."
Pakistan is a country which "spreads terror but it is also a victim of terror', Aiyar said.
"They (Pakistan) thought they could bring Taliban to power in Afghanistan, (but) today their single biggest threat is the Taliban in Afghanistan," he said.
In a compliment to former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Aiyar said his single biggest achievement was to ensure that India talked to Pakistan on the back channel on what Gen Musharraf called the four-point agreement on Kashmir.
Singh also showed that it is possible to talk business with a military government, he said.
"It is suicidal for us to continue wearing Pakistan around our neck like the albatross. We should just talk to them as Manmohan Singh showed on the issue of Kashmir,” he said.
Aiyar took part in a discussion on his recent book where he touched on issues like his relation with the Gandhi family, his tryst with the Congress party, his stint in the days at Cambridge and his commentary on the present situation in the country.
