R Ashoka Accuses Congress Govt of Allowing Kerala’s Influence Over Karnataka Governance

Hubballi: Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly R. Ashoka on Friday launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar for allowing Kerala’s influence to dominate the Karnataka administration.

Speaking to reporters here, Ashoka criticized the State government for not taking a firm stand on Kerala’s recently proposed Malayalam language bill, which aims to make Malayalam the compulsory first language in the government and provides aided schools, including Kannada medium schools, in border districts like Kasaragod.

He alleged that the move would pose a serious threat to Kannada-medium schools, especially in border areas in Kerala’s districts with a significant Kannada-speaking population. “This will jeopardize the future of Kannada schools in border areas,” he said.

Continuing his attack, Ashoka alleged that political power was concentrated in Kerala but financial resources were being diverted to Kerala at the expense of Karnataka.

“The power is in Kerala and the money is going to Kerala. There is instability in Karnataka and Kerala is benefiting from it. AICC general secretary KC Venugopal is putting pressure on Karnataka. We don’t even know who is actually running the government here,” he said.

Referring to the concentration of power in Kerala, he said KC Venugopal, a powerful general secretary of the Congress party, hails from Kerala, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra won an election there and Rahul Gandhi was earlier an MP from the State. “Karnataka is ruled by Kerala,” he claimed.

Ashoka also touched on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s past association with Kannada organisations, stating that he once served as the first president of the Kannada Kavalu Samiti. “Such developments that took place during his tenure amount to an insult to Siddaramaiah himself,” he said.

He also criticized Siddaramaiah for sharing the stage with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who had earlier described the Karnataka government as a “bulldozer government”. “There is an attack on Kannada today and that’s why I say Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar should talk,” Ashoka said.

Questioning the government’s response, Ashoka said that merely issuing a press release reflected a lack of commitment. “If the Prime Minister has self-respect, he should strongly oppose this move,” he said.

Ashoka also claimed that Karnataka had provided financial assistance to Kerala even when funds were not available for housing flood-affected families in the state. “While there was no money to build houses for flood-affected people in Karnataka, billions of rupees were given to Kerala,” he said.

It ends.