BJP protests in Karnataka Assembly against Siddaramaiah govt's resolution

Bengaluru: The BJP on Friday condemned the Congress government's passing of a resolution against the NDA-led Centre in the Legislative Assembly over tax allocation and demand of MSP for all crops.

The BJP on Friday also presented its resolution in the Assembly condemning the move of the state government.

Leader of opposition R. Ashoka raised the issue, and said, “This was not on the agenda. What should be made of Law Minister H.K. Patil’s act of bringing this resolution up in the House all of a sudden? This is a violation of the sanctity of the House and is against the rules. The resolution against the central government should be withdrawn immediately. They have presented and passed the resolution stealthily and cunningly."

Ashoka further questioned the Congress that their members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha should have raised the issues in Parliament.

"Let the Congress introduce this resolution in the next session and let it be debated. The central and state governments should go hand in hand. When B.S. Yediyurappa was the CM, he addressed the central government respectfully. There is not an instance where then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was addressed in a demeaning manner. The Karnataka Congress has been bad-mouthing the present PM Modi all through. This conflict will affect the 7.5 crore Kannada people, he added.

Former CM Basavaraj Bommai stated that it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi who increased the devolution of funds to the states from 32 per cent to 42 per cent a few months after taking charge as the Prime Minister.

Basavaraj Bommai said that before the first Finance Commission the devolution of funds to the states was 20 per cent. It took 30 years to get increased to 30 per cent. "Though the states demanded 40 per cent share in devolution of taxes, the Congress-led UPA government during its tenure of 10 years did not bother to look into it," Bommai slammed.

He further stated that five ministers from the Congress government attended the meeting of the 15th Finance Commission and did not say a word about the injustice to the state. "Now, they are objecting only for political reasons," he said.

Minister for Law H.K. Patil said, "The official resolution was passed condemning the central government over injustice to the state over allocation of funds. It is in the interest of Karnataka state. We need not take licence from you to present the resolutions."

The BJP MLAs came into the well and raised slogans against the Congress government. As the House turned chaotic, Speaker U.T. Khader adjourned the proceedings to Monday morning.

On Thursday, the Karnataka Legislative Assembly passed two resolutions -- first was against reduced share of taxes and other allocations from the Centre to the state and the second was in support of protesting farmers seeking Minimum Support Price (MSP) of all crops. The resolutions were passed by the Assembly amid protest by the BJP MLAs who stormed into the well of the House.