PM used govt machinery to spread lies against opposition: Health Minister Dinesh Gundurao

BENGALURU: Health Minister Dinesh Gundurao on Sunday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had ‘misused government machinery to attack the Congress and other Opposition parties.

In a letter to President Droupadi Murmu, he mentioned that PM Modi used the government programme to launch Sickle Cell Anemia Eradication Mission to malign the opposition. “The central government had invited us that the Prime Minister will launch the programme through virtual and discuss it with the health ministers of the states in a video conference. As the health minister of the state, I attended the virtual meeting from Vikasa Soudha. But Modi discussed with no one and made a speech blaming the opposition”, Dinesh Gundu Rao said in the letter.

“Prime Minister Modi is now talking about curing sickle cell anemia. But, Karnataka was the first state in the country to be aware of sickle cell prevention. Since 2016, the Karnataka government has launched programmes against sickle cell disease. In 2016, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in the state conducted a screening of the tribal people of Mysuru and provided free health care to those who tested positive”, he noted.

“As the Health Minister of the state, I participated in the programme in the hope that PM Modi will seek the views of the state government on the measures being taken by Karnataka to prevent sickle cell disease. But the Prime Minister wasted our time with his party’s election speech”, he said. In the letter, Dinesh Gundu Rao also expressed his displeasure that PM Modi disappointed everyone.

“It is not right for Prime Minister Modi to use such government programmes to make derogatory statements about the Congress and other opposition parties”, Dines Gundurao said in the letter and added that it is objectionable that Prime Minister Modi chose the official function of the government to put forward his prejudices against the opposition parties.

“Prime Minister Modi termed the guarantees given by the Congress to the common people as fraud. The guarantees given by the Congress in Karnataka are being implemented one by one. There is relief from the heat of price rise. But PM Modi has spread false propaganda against the opposition, including the Congress, in the government programme”, Dinesh Gundurao alleged.

“Every citizen is free to express his political views in political forums. But it is unforgivable for a prime minister to express political prejudices at a government function. The launch of the ‘National Sickle Cell Anemia Elimination Mission’ was supposed to be about the affected people and the mission strategy. But the Prime Minister did not focus on tribal issues. Instead, he wasted the occasion in attacking the Congress and other opposition parties”, the health minister charged.

The Health Minister expressed displeasure that Karnataka’s achievements in health services and the state’s historic efforts to fight sickle cell disease have been ‘deliberately ignored by the Prime Minister’. As the 2024 Lok Sabha elections are approaching, the minister has requested President Murmu in his letter that political speeches should not be allowed to be used by the government machinery.