Karnataka polls: PM Modi attacks Congress on corruption, incompetence

Modi said both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi were out on bail because they had cases of defalcation, amounting to Rs 50 billion against them

Corruption and the Congress’s sense of entitlement was the dominant theme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public meeting at Hubbali, an area in North Karnataka that is beset with an agrarian crisis.

Modi made just one reference to the problems of farmers — by citing the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s statement in court that arecanut (supari) is bad for health, thus plunging arecanut growers in the region in a crisis. However, the cultivation of arecanut is widespread in coastal Karnataka that Modi visited earlier. In North Karnataka, only one district Sirsi grows arecanut, a commodity highly prized for its contribution