Key Points

"Bharat Mata's image is here to stay. Whether the CPM likes it or the Congress likes it, Bharat Mata represents how we view our country and will always continue to do so..." Chandrasekhar told IANS.

Raising issues related to impropriety and protocol violation, the former Union Minister said, "The controversy is that a minister from the state government, who was invited to participate in the World Environment Day event, chose to stay away or boycott the governor's programme, a programme hosted by the constitutional head of the state, simply because he did not like the picture of Bharat Mata."

The businessman-turned-politician also attacked the Congress government in Karnataka in the backdrop of the stampede on June 4, which claimed 11 lives.

"The Congress government in Karnataka is the most inept, the most corrupt, the most incompetent and the heartless," he said, demanding the resignation of CM Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM DK Shivakumar.

"The Home Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister need to be held accountable. They should resign," he said, questioning the silence of the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on the incident.

"Today, pensioners have to struggle to get their pension, farmers have to struggle to avoid suicides. They are an anti-people government; they fooled the people and came to power," said Chandrasekhar.

"In this incident, the Chief Minister and the Deputy CM were sitting in the stadium and celebrating the victory of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. While they were surrounded by policemen, the fans outside the stadium were getting trampled," he said.

This has shown the "lack of sensitivity and negligence" of the Karnataka government, he said, adding, "It doesn't make any sense that the Deputy CM complements the police on a day when 11 people have died."

He also hit out at the Congress for trying to share the credit for the Chenab Bridge, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Jammu on Friday.

"The Congress can't say anything meaningful, so they will only snipe. The fact is this: These huge mega projects were left incomplete for years, making the country believe that such projects could never be accomplished. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, has not only completed these two projects, the Anji Bridge and the Chenab Bridge, but has also tackled many such challenges that the country faced and could not be addressed for decades," he said.

The Former Union minister also complemented PM Modi for using infrastructure to unite even the remotest parts of the country with the heartland.

"Jammu and Kashmir now is very closely linked to the heartland of India through these projects, similarly he has done with the Northeast and even with the other remote parts of the country by building roads, bridges, trains and modern infrastructure," said Chandrasekhar.

He said that PM Modi has brought India closer, connected consumers and markets closer and created more and more opportunities for the economy, both local and national.

- IANS