Modi slams Congress for 'unreal promises' after Kharge reprimands Karnataka leaders over safeguards

Bengaluru:Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge's rebuke of party leaders in Karnataka for announcing guarantees without thinking of the budget appears to have backfired, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing the party of “making unreal promises”.

The Congress Party is realizing the hard way that it is easy to make unreal promises, but implementing them properly is difficult, if not impossible. Campaign after campaign, they promise things to the people, which they also know they can never keep. Now they are seriously exposed in front of the people! Modi said in a series of posts on social media platform X.

…..Their so-called guarantees are not respected, which constitutes a terrible deception for the people of these States. The victims of this policy are the poor, youth, farmers and women, who are not only denied the benefits of these promises, but also see their existing programs diluted, the Prime Minister added.

Later in the day, Kharge and Siddaramaiah slammed the Prime Minister for his attacks on the Congress and its government in various states.

Kharge exposed the lies, deception, falsification, looting and publicity of the Modi government in a long article on X. Modi ji, before pointing fingers please note that – MODI KI GUARANTEE is a cruel joke on 140 Crore of Indians! he said.

Similarly, the CM suggested Modi to take a hard look at the BJP's disastrous legacy in Karnataka. The BJP left Karnataka in the grip of 40% commission corruption, draining resources that could have transformed lives. We use that same 40% to redirect it for the benefit of the people. How successful have you been here? Strengthen corrupt practices, leave Karnataka saddled with debt and use propaganda to cover up your failures? Siddaramaiah posted on 'X'.

The Prime Minister's statements came a day after Kharge released the Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka government's public message when it called for a review of its free public bus rides for women or Shakthi scheme.

Don't guarantee 5, 6, 10 or 20 of these promises, don't do this, give guarantees according to your budget. If you give guarantees without the planned budget, you will go bankrupt, the Congress national president had said on Thursday in the presence of CM Siddaramaiah. and his deputy DKShivakumar.

Shivakumar had remarked that the state government would review its Shakthi (free bus rides for women) scheme, which the Congress leader said left doubts over whether the scheme would be discontinued.

Since coming to power in Karnataka last year, the Congress has replicated its guarantees as an electoral strategy in Telangana, improved its results in Haryana and is now gearing up for a big rollout in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, poll-related, according to people in the know. developments.

With nearly a quarter of Karnataka's budget earmarked to fund the five guarantees, Kharges' remarks come amid growing criticism of the Siddaramaiah government, which focuses excessively on its social policies and leaves little space for other development activities in Karnataka.

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Karnataka Model

The Karnataka government has announced five guarantees estimated to cost around Rs 52,000 crore per year.

Shivakumar categorically said on Friday that the guarantees would not be stopped or withdrawn and that his statements were distorted. There is absolutely no question of eliminating any of the five guarantee schemes. But we cannot impose guarantee systems on those who do not want them.

As of October 18, a total of 535,64,91,122 free rides have been availed by women passengers since August 11, 2023, the date of its launch, at a cost of over Rs 7,507 crore. Unlike other guarantees, Shakthi is available to all women, regardless of their economic status.

(The) Karnataka guarantee model is the model for the entire country, the BJP and other parties are also adopting it. We are proud to have been able to implement it, to make it happen. Shivakumar told reporters.

But several congressmen and other leaders have called for a rethink of those projects because their funding leaves no money for other development work through which they could show some semblance of work in their constituencies, said several leaders who are maintained with ThePrint.

Cash-strapped Karnataka has increased prices of alcohol, stamps, registration fees and other taxes to raise capital.

In the post-GST regime, states are forced to rely on their own taxes to raise funds to finance social welfare programs. The Karnataka government's estimates show that for every rupee the state sends to the Centre, it receives around 13 paise. The Siddaramaiah government called on at least two organizations, including the Boston Consulting Group, to identify avenues for mobilizing resources.

State economic situation

Siddaramaiah held a series of meetings on Wednesday, reviewing tax collection and revenue targets of each government department. The government has silenced critics questioning its ability to finance social guarantees, having already allocated Rs 24,235 crore out of a budget of Rs 52,009 crore. By leveraging e-governance models, the state ensures accurate identification of beneficiaries, thereby eliminating inefficiencies while maximizing the impact of social welfare programmes, the Chief Minister's Office said in a statement.

He added that the state's growth was about 11.2 percent higher than the national average, showing how fiscally prudent the administration was.

But cash flow is not a problem in Karnataka, especially in the early months of the fiscal year, officials say.

There is no cash flow problem in Karnataka. Most of the loans were taken in the last quarter, a senior government official said.

Siddaramaiah presented a deficit budget for 2024-25 in February. Its total liabilities in 2024-25 are estimated at Rs. 6,65,095 crore, or 23.68 percent of the state's GSDP, could still be subject to the guidelines of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, but the growing debt and Growing infrastructure needs have increased the debt burden.

The cash flow is not bad, but overall, if this same trend of cash outflows continues for another six months, we could lose around Rs 12,000 crore, Basavaraj Rayareddi, the economic advisor, said earlier by Siddaramaiah, to ThePrint.

He added that the total bill for all state subsidy and guarantee schemes was around Rs 90,000 crore and it was imperative to identify and monetize the revenue streams at the earliest.

The state is also trying to weed out ineligible BPL (below poverty line) cardholders to reduce the number of beneficiaries receiving free foodgrains to reduce social spending.

(Edited by Tony Rai)

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