Bengaluru: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy emulated his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee and created history in Karnaka by launching a protest against ‘intrusive’ Income Tax officials who swooped down on the premises of his ministers and JD(S) leaders in Hassan, Mandya, Shivamogga, Kanakapura and Bengaluru on Thursday ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. He is the first CM in the state to take up a protest of this kind.
Mamata had protested recently against the Centre for sending CBI officers to Kolkata to question the Bengal top cop in the Sarada chit fund scam.
Incidentally, all those raided are close associates and relatives of JD(S) leaders, while in Kanakapura, IT officials examined 20-year-old documents pertaining to the assets of Water Resources Minister D.K. Shivakumar, his brother and Congress MP D.K. Suresh and their mother Mrs Gowramma.
Joining Kumaraswamy in the protest were KPCC President Dinesh Gundurao, former CM Siddaramaiah, Deputy CM Dr G Parameshwar and Water Resources Minister D.K. Shivakumar with the protest at the IT office on the busy Queen's Road lasting more than an hour.
Kumaraswamy blamed BJP National General Secretary B.L. Santhosh for the raids claiming he had passed on the list of people who should be raided to BJP National President Amit Shah. He also alleged the the Income Tax chief here, Mr Balakrishnan had been offered a governor’s post after retirement to make sure he went ahead with the raids. “Without the go-ahead from PM Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, such raids do not happen. We are not against the raids, but the timing is important. We are not scared of such threats, we will take it as a challenge and win all 28 Lok Sabha seats,”' he said.
Asserting that he had details of the corrupt practices adopted by IT officials, Kumaraswamy said he would reveal facts about how IT officials have settled issues after receiving bribes. “Recently, IT officials recovered Rs 2 crore in Shivamogga and never revealed the details. To whom did the money belong? During the recent Operation Lotus, BJP leaders offered Rs 20-30 crore to Congress MLAs. No one asked Mr Yeddyurappa where he got so much money from,” the CM said.
Siddaramaiah said that the same IT officials who had given BJP state president B.S. Yeddyurappa a clean chit within 24 hours after the sensational diary controversy on payoffs to senior BJP leaders broke out, were now trying to frame Congress and JD(S) leaders in Karnataka. `` They should reveal the details of what they unearthed during the raids. Do they think BJP leaders are ‘Sathya Harishchandras?’ Today, Mr Modi may be PM but he will not return after the Lok Sabha elections. Then, we may have to make you dance,” Siddaramaiah quipped.
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