K'taka CM protests Centre's 'injustice'; 'false narrative', says Sitharaman

Communist Party of India (M) leader and Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, along with his Cabinet colleagues, will protest at Jantar Mantar against the Centre's alleged negligence towards southern states

Karnataka Chief Minister (CM) Siddaramaiah on Wednesday led his Council of Ministers and Congress legislators to protest the Centre’s “injustice” to the state in the devolution of taxes at the national capital’s Jantar Mantar. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, her colleagues in the Union Cabinet, and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Members of Parliament from the southern state rejected the CM’s charge.

However, the issue of states’ share in central funds could snowball into a significant plank for the INDIA bloc of Opposition parties and other regional entities in the forthcoming elections and has the resonance of 1983-85 when the Congress dominated the country’s politics, with CMs of Opposition-ruled southern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu, as well as that of West Bengal, coming together to flag issues of Centre-state relations, federalism, and states’ share of funds.

 

Earlier this week, on the floor of the Andhra Pradesh legislative Assembly, Andhra Pradesh CM Y S Jaganmohan Reddy complained about the Union government allocating a lesser share of funds to the state. In the past five years, Reddy’s Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party has supported the government in Parliament on crucial Bills.

On Thursday, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader and Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, along with his Cabinet colleagues, will protest at Jantar Mantar against the Centre’s alleged negligence towards the southern state.

Tamil Nadu’s ruling party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin have expressed solidarity with Vijayan.

On Wednesday, at Jantar Mantar, Karnataka Deputy CM D K Shivakumar, several Members of Parliament, ministers, and Members of Legislative Assembly from the state participated in the protest. They alleged that “injustice” has been meted out to Karnataka in tax devolution and grants-in-aid over the past few years. They demanded that the Centre compensate losses of Rs 1.87 trillion allegedly incurred by Karnataka under the 15th Finance Commission.

Siddaramaiah said this protest is not against the BJP but the discrimination against Karnataka.

“We are raising the issue of discrimination meted out by the Government of India to the state of Karnataka and other southern states,” Siddaramaiah said while addressing the protesters.

Sitharaman accused the Congress Karnataka government of a “separatist” mentality and spreading a “false narrative” about the Centre’s alleged discrimination against the state in fund allocation. In her detailed rebuttal to the claims made by the Karnataka government, Sitharaman, a Rajya Sabha (RS) member from Karnataka, said the Siddaramaiah government is feeling the heat due to the financial burden of nearly Rs 58,000 crore for the implementation of his party’s poll promises. In the RS, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it pained him that a national party’s state government was using such language.

Addressing a press meet in the national capital, Vijayan said the Centre favoured National Democratic Alliance-ruled state governments. He said the situation should not be seen as a divide between the North and the South but as states getting their due.

In West Bengal, CM Mamata Banerjee complained that the Centre was yet to release Rs 1.16 trillion due to the state government for paying the wages of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act workers. Mamata, who recently staged a 48-hour dharna demanding the release of dues to the state, announced that her government would transfer the funds to the bank accounts of 2.1 million workers in the state by February 21.