From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru

Bengaluru, May 8: Praising the development-oriented and forward-looking leadership of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and asking people to vote decisively in favour of the Congress government, senior Congress leader and former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram urged the people of Karnataka to defeat the designs of RSS-BJP dispensation to wreck the federal system.

"The challenge before the next government of Karnataka is two-fold. The first is to maintain the momentum of development that has been achieved in the last five years and second to boldly confront the design of the RSS-BJP dispensation to wreck the federal system, weaken the States, and impose their pernicious agenda of one history, one culture, one religion, one language, and one code of behaviour," he said.

Addressing a news conference at the KPCC office in Bengaluru on Tuesday, Chidambaram condemned the "mischievous design" of the Narendra Modi regime while appointing the XV Finance Commission and drawing up the Terms of Reference and alleged that the Modi government has "distorted and violated the Constitutional provisions."

"The terms of reference is biased against the States that have been better governed in the past and are relatively more developed, and that includes the Southern States," he said pointed out that if the XV Finance Commission followed the terms of reference, the share of funds of the affected States will be sharply reduced; revenue deficit grants will be stopped altogether; and States will be denied the freedom to devise their own social welfare programmes.

He said the terms of reference "is another grave misadventure after demonetisation and a flawed and hastily-implemented GST."

"The misadventure will destroy India’s federal system and, therefore, it must be stopped here and now," he said supporting the demands of the Southern States of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

"I appeal to the people of Karnataka to vote for the Congress candidates, give the Congress party a clear and absolute majority, and elect a stable government that will steer Karnataka forward on the path of sustained development," he said explaining that the importance of the election to the whole country is obvious to everyone.

"The hopes and aspirations of the people of the country are riding on the voters of Karnataka," he said.

In a brutal attack on the earlier BJP rule in the State between 2008 and 2013, Chidambaram said "no one has forgotten the sad spectacle."

"The people of Karnataka gave 110 seats to the BJP, and what did the people get in return? They got a weak and unstable government and three Chief Ministers in those five years! It was perhaps the worst government in the history of Karnataka. It is the same incompetent men and women who are leading the BJP’s campaign in this election and asking for your votes," he said and asserted that "There can be no better time and place to stop the misadventure than Karnataka in the year 2018. There can be no better force to stop the misadventure than the people of Karnataka."

He pointed out that during the period 2013-2018, Karnataka’s Gross State Domestic Product, at constant prices, has increased from Rs 6,43,292 crore (in 2012-13) to Rs 9,49,111 crore (in 2017-18). Thus, real GSDP growth was over 8 per cent a year. The average resident of Karnataka is richer today than he was five years ago. Per capita income, in current prices, has jumped from Rs 77,309 to Rs 1,74,551. This is a growth of 125 per cent compared to the All-India growth of 59 per cent.

In addition, he said unemployment in Karnataka is among the lowest for all the states. In April 2018, it was 2.6 per cent. For All-India, the number was 5.9 per cent."

Complementing the administration and governance of Siddaramaiah government, he said the State has an enviable macro-economic record. In the five years of Congress government, the average Fiscal Deficit was 2.26 per cent. On the revenue account, the average surplus (I repeat, surplus, not deficit) was 0.08 per cent. The development and welfare have gone hand-in-hand.

While the GSDP grew by an average of 8 per cent a year, social sector expenditure has consistently been over 40 per cent of total expenditure. The benefits of such targeted expenditure are visible. All these and more have been possible because the State has had a stable government under Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the Congress leader said.

Chidambaram appealed to the people of Karnataka to give a clear mandate to Congress and defeat the designs of RSS-BJP and thereby ensure BJP’s defeat in the 2019 lok sabha polls.