Why shouldn't we allocate 1% budget to Muslims: Shivakumar on 'appeasement' allegations

Bengaluru, Feb 17 (IANS) Reacting to the appeasement charges, the Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Saturday asked why can’t government not allocate even 1 per cent budget to Muslims.

“In 3.71 lakh crore budget, only Rs 3,000 crore have been allocated to Muslims for the schools and development. Shouldn’t we allocate even 1 per cent to Muslims?” Shivakumar told media persons.

He said that BJP has a habit of making everything a political issue.

Karnataka government has allocated Rs 200 crore for the development of Christian community and Rs 100 crore for the protection and development of Waqf properties and has also made slew of announcements of release of grants to them.

On BJP and JD (S) planning to field a strong candidate against his brother, Shivakumar said that he is confident that people will not vote for their candidate.

“I had contested against former PM Deve Gowda in 1985 and 1990 elections. I have contested against H.D. Kumaraswamy also. When BJP and JD (S) had fielded Kumaraswamy’s wife Anita against me, I had won with a margin of 1.31 lakh votes,” he said.

He said that the voters are with the Congress party and his brother Suresh is not a “Delhi MP” but a ground level worker.

“The people have seen the difference between the governance between Deve Gowda, Kumaraswamy and him. Let them field any candidate, people will make better judgment,” Shivakumar said.