Bengaluru: Calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi the modern “Bhasmasura”, Congress MLC V.S. Ugrappa on Monday warned that democracy was in danger in the country under his leadership supported by BJP national president, Amit Shah.
Speaking to reporters here, the Congress leader alleged that the BJP at the Centre was replicating the “Operation Lotus” of former Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa to topple all elected opposition governments in the country.
“Mr Modi is misusing the IB and CBI to threaten opposition leaders and topple their governments. In Bihar he used the agencies against Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav’s family, and arm- twisted Mr Nithish Kumar to force him to back the NDA. In Goa the party hijacked the government although it did not have the people’s mandate. And now it is doing the same in Gujarat,” he charged.
The MLC claimed that with elections due in Gujarat later in the year the Bharatiya Janata Party was threatening Congress MLAs and forcing them to resign from the party to make sure it returned to power in that state.
“Besides Mr Modi, Mr Shah and Mr Yeddyurappa are shamelessly claiming that they would win all the three seats in coming elections to the Rajya Sabha from the Gujarat Assembly,” he added.
Ridiculing Mr Modi for claiming in his Man Ki Baath programme that the prices of essential commodities had fallen, he said the Prime Minister did not seem to be aware that the prices of most vegetables had gone up.
“He has not even been able to pass on the benefits of a drop in the price of crude oil in the international market to consumers in the country,” he deplored.
