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Rahul woos Lingayats in K’taka

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday sought to strike an emotional chord with the people of north Karnataka by repeatedly…

Rahul woos Lingayats in K’taka

Congress President Rahul Gandhi (Photo: Facebook)

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday sought to strike an emotional chord with the people of north Karnataka by repeatedly invoking the teachings of Basavana, the 12th-century social reformer and founder of the Lingayat community.

Slamming Prime Minster Narendra Modi for not following Basavana’s teachings, he said Mr Modi had violated every tenet of the Lingayat community’s founder by breaking his promises to the nation. The Prime Minister, he said, had not only lied to the people by not depositing Rs 15 lakhs in their accounts, as promised, but had also failed to curb corruption.

He went against the preachings of Basavana by repeatedly praising himself and taking credit for others deeds, including the achievements of the Army.

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Significantly, north Karnataka is dominated by the Lingayat community and comprises districts of Bidar, Kalburgi, Vijapura, Belagaavi, Raayachooru, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri, Koppalaand parts of Ballari.

The Congress chief is on a three-day election tour of the Lingayat belt which is generally known to favour the BJP.

According to Mr Gandhi,in stark contrast to Mr Modi, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramiah has proved to be a worthy follower of Basavana by fulfilling his promises.

Cases in point, he said, were farm loan waiver, the launch of social welfare schemes , not to mention the fact that it had provided a clean, corruption-free government while protecting farmers’ interests, all in tune with the teachings of Basavana.

The Congress party had even fought the British keeping the thoughts of Basavana in mind.

The Siddaramiah government had taken everybody along even though they had abused it.

The Congress had, in line with the philosophy of reformers and renowned music maestros like Bhimsen Joshi and Mallikarjun Mansur, helped in uniting Karnataka unlike the BJP which believed in inciting violence, he said.

Ironically, earlier this week, the son of a leading Congress MLA in Bengaluru was taken to the cooler for brutally assaulting a customer in a pub. The incident had evoked protests by the Opposition and public.

In another incident, a Congress leader threatened to set afire a civic agency’s office in Bengaluru as the officials there refused to provide him a fake ownership certificate. The Congress president was silent on these issues.

Mr Gandhi also referred to the Rs 11,400 crore scam involving Nirav Modi, which incidentally, he kept referring to as the Rs 22,000 crore scam. He also urged the voters to think deeply before making their choice.

He said it was the people to decide whether to go with a leader who believed in pulling the wool over the electorates’ eyes by making false promises or to favour a party which had fulfilled its promises in the last five years in the state.

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