The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka on Tuesday along with Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot staged a protest against the state administration accusing them of misusing the public funds to issue front-page advertisements in various newspapers asking people to take part in the 'Chalo Delhi' march against the Central government.
The protest comes ahead of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's planned stage demonstration at Jantar Mantar tomorrow (Feb 7) against the Central government alleging "injustice" to Karnataka, in tax devolution and grants-in-aid over the past few years.
The advertisement read: "To protest against the financial atrocities committed by the Central government on Kannadigas and Karnataka – Chalo Delhi."
The state government claimed that not even a penny for drought relief was given to the state though the demand was for Rs 18,177 crore. A special grant of Rs 5,495 crore as recommended by the 15th Finance Commission has been announced.
The government also alleged that there was a disparity in the tax share given by the Centre to the state. It also accused the Centre of cutting grants for collaborative schemes.
"Losses to Karnataka by the Central government from 2017-18 was Rs 1.87 lakh crore," the government claimed in its advertisement.
In its memorandum to Gehlot, the BJP alleged that the advertisement "incites the people of Karnataka with misleading and false information regarding devolution of funds from the Centre".
The opposition party in the state said that using the state funds to publish advertisements against the Central government is "the most shocking of all the illegalities and wrongs committed by the state government".
"The state government led by the Congress party has issued an advertisement against the union of India. This is actually a Congress advertisement inciting the people of Karnataka against the central BJP government...Why should the state government pay for it?" the memorandum asked.
It characterised the Congress's move as "nothing but cheating the treasury" and "playing a fraud" on people by using their money for political purposes.
“Under the Constitution of India, there is a federal structure of government and it is totally unconstitutional for one state government to use its funds to incite the people, call for rallies, and assist in holding a protest against the central government. This is against the constitution and its federal structure,” the party said.
The BJP appealed to the governor to issue necessary directions to the Commissioner of Information and Publicity to immediately stop issuing such ads.
In a post on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter), BJP Karnataka president B Y Vijayendra slammed the Congress government for resorting to an "unfair campaign" against the Centre under the "false pretense" of pending tax dues.
“Providing false information to divert people's attention is also another face of treachery & fraud. @BJP4Karnataka has taken this seriously & will soon expose the duplicity of Congress government along with evidence,” he said.
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