Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], May 20 : Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge on Wednesday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ongoing five-nation tour amid the hike in fuel prices, rising inflation and call for austerity measures and accused the BJP of "hiding away from responsibilities."
PM Modi is currently in Italy as the final leg of his five-nation tour. Earlier, the Prime Minister was in Norway for the fourth leg and before his Oslo visit, he was in Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates.
Speaking with ANI, Kharge asserted that the BJP leaders who were following the austerity measures following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's advice are back to "square one." He accused the party of attacking the Congress leadership in Karnataka to hide the PM's "master strokes", citing depreciation in the value of the rupee and the increasing prices of essential commodities.
"To hide PM Modi's master strokes, they are doing personal attacks against our government. They are attacking Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar. They want to hide the failures of Modi's economics. The petrol and diesel it is crossing Rs 100, what is the value of rupees, it's almost touching 97 now against the dollar? What about the price rise in daily essentials? What about the price rise in daily medicines? This is something that they need to answer. Why are they hiding away from the responsibilities? What happened to all these BJP MLAs, ministers, and chief ministers? They took the metro, cycle, two wheelers for one day and today, they're back to square one. They were supposed to follow austerity. What happened?" he said.
Furthermore, the Minister questioned the expense of PM Modi's foreign visits, asking how they benefited the nation. Alleging that India did not get foreign support during the terror attack by Pakistan, Kharge confronted the PM over his claim of India being "Vishwa Guru" and asked for a white paper of government initiatives, slogans and claims.
"The Prime Minister has spent close to Rs 850 crores for his foreign visits. How has it helped the country?... Foreign investors have been strategically pulling out their investments from India. No country is friendly to you. When a terrorist state like Pakistan attacks you, not one single country stands with you. You're going abroad to fix deals for Adani and not to fix the nation's interest... You're not able to answer one simple question from the press. You're embarrassing the nation by just walking away when somebody wants to ask you a question. Neither you answer questions here nor abroad, and you claim to be Vishwa Guru, you claim that every foreign Prime Minister and President is your friend, but how has it actually benefited India? I request the Prime Minister, please release a white paper of your "Achche Din", please release a white paper of Make in India, please release a white paper of Amrit Kaal, please release a white paper of Viksit Bharat for the people to know," he argued.
Earlier, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over rising prices, while asserting that the Congress would return to power in the state in 2028.
He was speaking at the 'Sarthaka Seva Samarpane' convention held in Tumakuru to mark three years of the Congress government.
Addressing the gathering, Shivakumar targeted the Prime Minister over rising prices and asked, "Why is your Prime Minister telling people to use less petrol, less cooking oil, take the metro, travel by bus, not use cars, not buy gold, remove mangalsutras and tie turmeric instead?"
"People have only one life. Don't they deserve to live happily? The dollar has gone up to 96 rupees. Petrol prices were hiked by one rupee again today. Why are BJP leaders silent? Why are Ashok and Vijayendra not discussing this?" he added.
Shivakumar also said the Congress government in Karnataka had brought transformative changes in people's lives and set a governance model for the country.
"The Congress government has brought change in the lives of the people of the state. It has given the entire country a model government, and we will continue to uphold it. May your blessings always be with us. Where there is hard work, history is created. Where there is faith, miracles happen. Where there is truth, victory is certain," he said.