Bengaluru: The newly re-elected national president of Janata Dal (Secular) H.D. Deve Gowda held PM Modi responsible for non-functioning of parliament for over two weeks on the issue of demonetisation which virtually forced President Pranab Mukherjee to advise opposition members to attend the session without disrupting the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
Addressing the party national executive committee meeting held here on Friday, he sought to know what had prevented Mr Modi from making a statement in both Houses to end the impasse. The opposition parties were only demanding that the PM address them so that the Houses function normally. Instead, Mr Modi was maintaining a stoic silence. Things had gone from bad to worse ever since the PM announced scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes in a bid to end to black money and over 100 people had died standing in queues to withdraw money from banks.
No rebels on JD(S) core panel
Sending a strong message to suspended legislators, the new state core committee does not have any of those who had raised the banner of revolt against the Janata Dal (Secular) leadership and more so against state party chief H.D. Kumaraswamy.
The new committee is headed by Mr Kumaraswamy and members include Basavaraj Horatti. Bandeppa Kashempur, B.M. Farooq, Madhu Bangarappa, B.B. Ningaiah, Venkatrao Nadgouda, Alkod Hanumanthappa, Sharada Poorya Nayak, G.T. Deve Gowda, Srimant Patil and T.A. Sarawana.
‘Tough days ahead for Siddaramaiah govt’
H.D. Kumaraswamy, who has been re-elected president of state JD(S), predicted difficult days ahead for the state government, with two of its officers, reportedly close to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and PWD Minister, H C Mahadevappa, being caught with unaccounted properties worth crores.
Addressing the party’s National Executive Committee meeting here, he recalled that the joint raid by the Income Tax department and the Enforcement Directorate on the two officers had led to a discovery of crores in the new '2000 denomination notes and benami properties.
“The duo are being interrogated to find out if they had any political help in stashing such a huge amount in the new currency notes. The Siddaramaiah government will be in trouble once the investigation progresses,” he warned.
Noting that one of the officers caught had worked as a chief engineer in the BBMP and allegedly played a role in a tender scam involving Rs 15,000 crore, he claimed JD(S) workers had raided the civic agency and caught him red-handed. But sadly, the documents pertaining to the scam were gutted in a fire in the BBMP’s record room, he regretted.
Lambasting the BJP, he said it had no moral right to talk against corruption as it had sown its seeds while in government and the present government was only “watering” them.
