Is Getting 48 Sites in a Day Not Daylight Robbery, Asks Yeddy

From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, Mar 17: Trying to turn the tables against his Number 1 detractor, former Prime Minister and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda and his family, for hurling allegations against him in parliament and outside on the alleged misuse of office for getting over Rs 28 crore worth of donations to the Prerana Educational Trust comprising his sons, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa launched a vicious counter-attack against the Gowda family for getting 48 prime sites in a single day from the Mysore Urban Development Authority when Deve Gowda was the chief minister of Karnataka.

''Is getting 48 sites from MUDA in a single day, not daylight robbery?" asked Yeddyurappa in the State Legislative Council while responding to the demand by the protesting Opposition members in the House on Thurday demanding a CBI probe into the Prerana Trust receiving huge donations from private firms.

When Gowda was the chief minister, his son H D Kumaraswamy, who became chief minister in the JD(S)-BJP coalition regime had been allocated a huge site measuring 300 ft X 200 ft by the MUDA, Yeddyurappa claimed and wanted to know ''if it was not looting and a day-light robbery."

The Gowda family, which has been leveling allegations against the BJP Government, should remember the adage that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones at others or spit in the sky because it might fall on them.

The Chief Minister, who was obviously rattled by the series of exposures leveled by the Gowda family in and outside parliament and state legislature and had succeeded in tarnishing his image over charges of corruption, nepotism and other irregularities, went all out in attacking the former minister and his state JD(S) chief and even referred to the allegations of BSK trading company, a firm of the family members of Gowda, making a bank deposit of Rs 150 crore to drive home a point that those making allegations of nepotism against him were also facing similarly charges.

The Gowda family was resorting to create trouble and pandemonium in the legislature houses, including parliament, demanding CBI probe into the episode only with a cheap intention of gaining political advantage in the ensuing by-elections to three assembly seats and maligning the image of the BJP government headed by him, Yeddyurappa said.

''But such gimmicks will not benefit you as people of the state will teach a lesson to you in the by-elections," he declared ridiculing JD(S) as a party of ''father and sons.’’

He cautioned the Congress against joining hands with that party. ''It will be shameful if the Congress joins forces with JD(S) in its campaign of calumny," he said pointing out that the JD(S) was determined to harm the interests and reputation of the State by leveling baseless allegations.

When the BJP Government in the State under his leadership has earned laurels and appreciation even from the Congress-led UPA regime for its implementation of the 20-point economic programme all over the country by being the second state after Gujarat, also ruled by BJP, Yeddyurappa said the former prime minister should bow his head in shame when it is proved that he had failed to perform as a member of parliament for the development of his lok sabha constituency.

Yeddyurappa, who had earlier offered his willingness to accept probe by any agency barring the Congress-controlled CBI in Delhi into the allegations of misuse of office in the donations received by Prerana Educational Trust comprising his son, B Y Raghavendra, the Shimoga BJP MP, B Y Vijayendra and other family members along with Prof Doreswamy, BJP MLC and Chairman of the PES Educational Institutions in the City, and the latter’s son Dr Jawahar, Principal of PES Institute of Technology, and other family members of the chief minister, said there was no irregularity or any kind of misuse of office and rejected the demand for CBI probe.