Hours after the Income Tax (I-T) department raided senior JD(S) leaders in Karnataka, the coalition partners Congress and JD(S) lashed out at the central government. Both parties held a protest in front of the I-T department office in Bengaluru, where Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy said the central government was attacking Karnataka government, after unleashing the I-T department on Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal.
Later talking to reporters, JD(S) Supremo HD Deve Gowda claimed that the BJP had offered Kumaraswamy money and tried to persuade him to form the government with them.
“They (BJP) tried to persuade Kumaraswamy to form government with the support of BJP. Before the election they extended huge money for the expenditure of JD(S), they tried to persuade him to meet them in Mumbai where money was kept but Kumaraswamy refused to budge”Deve Gowda to ANI
First West Bengal, Now Karnataka: CM
Stating that central and state governments needed to function in an atmosphere of trust, Kumaraswamy condemned the raids. He also said Modi was attacking Karnataka after first ‘creating platforms of confrontation’ in West Bengal.
Earlier in February, Bannerjee had staged a ‘Save the Constitution’ dharna after the CBI had attempted to unsuccessfully interrogate Rajeev Kumar, Kolkata Police Commissioner in connection with some chit fund cases.
Speaking to ANI, Kumaraswamy had on Wednesday, 27 March, threatened to follow in Didi’s footsteps.
“More than 300 IT officials are on their way to Bengaluru, they may start raids tomorrow. It's vengeance politics by the central govt, we know it's happening because of elections, if they continue like this, we'll do what West Bengal CM did,” he had told ANI.
“Central and state governments need to function in an atmosphere of trust. But your are going against that. Already in Wwest Bengal you’ve done this. You are trying to create platforms of confrontation. After West Bengal, now in Karnataka”Kumaraswamy
PM Violated MCC With A-SAT Speech: Kumaraswamy
Speaking at the protest, where he was joined by senior coalition leaders like Siddaramaiah, DK Shivakumar and deputy CM G Parameshwara, Kumaraswamy pointed towards the PM’s announcement about India’s successful testing of Anti-Satellite (A-SAT) weaponry.
“What was the Election Commission doing yesterday? The prime minister was allowed to address the country. I want to tell the youth to not be fooled. How did EC allow PM to speak yesterday. It is a violation of Model Code of Conduct.”Kumaraswamy
Promised I-T Dept Chief Governor Post: Kumaraswamy
He also directly attacked I-T department chief in Karnataka, claiming the BJP had offered him governor post after his retirement in months. He had earlier tweeted:
Speaking at the protest, the CM said: “For 8 months there were attempts by BJP to buy our MLAs. Did none of these things come to your notice? How many BJP leaders were raised? I-T department did not know. Was the I-T director sleeping at home?”
He also said the Congress-JD(S) should not get dispirited and work harder to defeat the “anti-democracy forces” and called the BJP government a dictatorship.
BJP is Using Constitutional Offices: DK Shivakumar
Senior Congress leader and minister DK Shivakumar said that he was aware of a lot of wrongdoings of BJP but didn’t want to hamper investigations by speaking about them.
“Injustice should not be done from the seat of justice. I am confident that BJP is using constitutional offices, they are working under lot of pressure. We all have to join to save institutions. I have been facing humiliation from August 2017.”DK Shivakumar
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