Bengaluru, Feb 5 (AHN) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday accused the Congress-led Karnataka government of convening a special Assembly session without any valid reason, alleging that it served no public purpose and resulted only in the waste of taxpayers’ money.

It may be noted that the Congress-led government held a special session between January 22 and February 4 and passed a resolution against the “Viksit Bharat Grameen Rozgar Aajeevika Mission” (VB-GRAMG).

Addressing the media in Bengaluru, the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, stated, “The state government failed to explain to the people why the special session was called. They claimed the real reason behind the session was the Congress party’s opposition to the renaming of the rural employment scheme by the Centre.”

He said the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was originally introduced to provide 100 days of wage employment to rural residents.

However, he alleged that the scheme had turned into a source of corruption under Congress rule, with work being carried out using machines, fake beneficiary lists being prepared, and large sums of money being siphoned off.

Narayanaswamy said Prime Minister Narendra Modi renamed the scheme as “Viksit Bharat Grameen Rozgar Aajeevika Mission” (VB-G RAM G) to restore its original intent of supporting women, Scheduled Castes, and persons with disabilities.

He alleged that the Congress was upset merely because the acronym of the new name includes the word “Ram”, and accused the party of opposing anything associated with Hindu sentiments.

He said the Congress was staging protests and drama only to please national-level opposition leaders.

Narayanaswamy further alleged that Congress leaders behaved irresponsibly during the special session.

He accused Congress MLC B.K. Hariprasad of using abusive language against the RSS and making objectionable remarks about women.

He also alleged that Congress MLC Naseer Ahmad called the Prime Minister a “traitor”, drawing strong condemnation from the public.

He condemned the one-day suspension of BJP leader C.T. Ravi, stating that he had not named anyone and had not used unconstitutional language.

Narayanaswamy argued that the suspension did not meet the criteria under Assembly Rules 326 and 322 and accused the Speaker of acting hastily in the absence of the concerned member.

The BJP said it would examine the legal validity of the suspension and decide on further action.

On the Bengaluru Metro fare hike, he said the government has maintained that the Metro is running at a loss and that the decision to increase fares was made accordingly.

Narayanaswamy said the BJP would assess the reasons cited by the government before reacting further, adding that the decision to hike fares rests with a state-level committee and that the Centre would not intervene.

Referring to the Excise Department issue, the BJP said discussions would be held with party leaders soon and that the government had taken the issue as a matter of prestige.

The party said it would decide within a week on the nature of its agitation against the government.