Vijayapura: Targetting the Congress party on the Lingayat religion issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday accused Congress leaders of dividing people on lines of religion, culture and tradition and also accused the state government of going against the Vachanas of lord Basavanna and making people fight against each other.
Addressing a massive rally at Sarwad village in Babaleshwar constituency on Tuesday, Mr Modi said Lord Basavanna wanted a united society but the Congress is going against Basavanna's teachings. Stating that votes cannot be won by parties by sitting in air-conditioned rooms, he said those who claim the Karnataka election will throw up a fractured verdict should come and witness the massive gathering at his rally. ''I have toured across Karnataka in the past eight days and found that people are not only set to defeat the Congress but have decided to give the party a five-year punishment,'' he added.
Taking potshots at Karnataka water resources minister M.B. Patil, Mr Modi said that while farmers in the state are committing suicide due to the prevailing drought, Mr Patil is involved in dividing religion and not worried about farmers’ problems. He also criticised Ministers Vinay Kulkarni and Basavaraj Rayareddy apart from Mr Patil over their involvement in the Lingayat religion issue. When people across the world are getting attracted to Lingayat religion, these ministers are dividing the religion, he said urging voters to defeat all of them.
Stating that it was the BJP government headed by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee which installed the portrait of Basavanna in Parliament, he said the BJP government took measures to spread the preachings of Basavanna across the world, adding that he had unveiled a statue of Basavanna in London recently.
Appreciating the contributions of seers of different Lingayat maths in the state, he said the maths have come as a blessing for people of Karnataka. The role of these seers is vital in building a healthy society, he said while stating that his government had inculcated their principles. Mr Modi also lamented that even 70 years after independence, about 4 crore houses in Karnataka did not have electricity connections for which he blamed successive Congress governments in the state. He targetted AICC president Rahul Gandhi quipping that Mrs Sonia Gandhi had started attending election rallies in the state as voters would not support her son and Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
