Priyank Kharge mentioned the anti-cow slaughter invoice has not made the farmers or the trade blissful.
New Delhi:
The earlier Basavaraj Bommai authorities’s anti-cow slaughter invoice in Karnataka is an obstacle to the state’s progress and entails huge monetary burdens, Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge informed NDTV on Tuesday. This conclusion, he added, was not drawn by the Congress however by the BJP authorities’s finance division.
Mr Kharge additionally made it clear that not simply cow slaughter or hijab, any rule by the BJP authorities can go if discovered to be regressive and in opposition to the state’s financial and social progress. Asked a couple of doable political backlash, he mentioned the main focus of the Congress authorities is “not politics, just economics”.
The anti-cow slaughter invoice, he mentioned, was drawn up solely to please the BJP’s “bosses in Nagpur”. It has made neither farmers, nor the trade blissful.
“This bill may be reconsidered in view of huge financial implications. We cannot agree to this kind of expenditure when we are struggling to make ends meet. The next two years, we expect a contraction in budget size and the cabinet’s decision can be put on hold,” he mentioned, studying from a word of the finance division written throughout the BJP rule.
The BJP’s different plans relating to cow safety have been additionally financial liabilities, mentioned Mr Kharge, who handles the agricultural growth and panchayati raj portfolios within the new Congress authorities headed by Siddaramaiah.
As an instance, he cited the plan to supply fodder to livestock.
According to the BJP’s calculations, he mentioned, it includes Rs 70 every animal every day — “I do not know how they came up with this figure,” he mentioned. But their calculations imply an expenditure of a whopping Rs 5,240 crore to feed the state’s 1.7 lakh livestock.
Asked concerning the political repercussions of those measures, Mr Kharge – who’s the son of Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge – pointed to the massive mandate acquired by the occasion final month within the state’s meeting election.
“We are looking at the economic growth of Karnataka… farmers, traders, MSMEs… we have got a huge mandate against this ideology. We have got a huge mandate to keep Karnataka on the path of progress… as a government is it not my priority to keep every child in school? If a certain policy is regressive and is keeping my children out of school, will I keep it or repeal it?” he mentioned.
The Congress, which received 135 of Karnataka’s 244 seats, had promised in its manifesto that it will “take strong action against organisations like Bajrang Dal that promote enmity and hatred among different communities”.
Mr Kharge mentioned, “Any regressive policy that impedes the growth of Karnataka economically and is going to take the state backwards will be reviewed and repealed if necessary”.