On the third day of his tour of Mumbai Karnataka, Congress president Rahul Gandhi continued to use the spiritual poetry of Basavanna to criticise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration.

Addressing a rally in Godchi in Ramdurg taluk, he said Mr. Modi and other BJP leaders were only using Basavanna’s name in their speeches, but were not interested in following him.

“Mr. Modi takes the name of Basavanna in many of his speeches, but forgets Basavanna’s tenets like practice what you preach and treat every one with kindness. Mr. Modi is helping the rich and not the poor. With demonetisation and other means, he helped innumerable rich people turn their black money into white money. The Prime Minister is interested only in waiving loans by corporate companies. He neither understands the problems of farmers nor does he want to help them.”

Mr. Gandhi accused the Prime Minister of remaining selectively silent about issues that mattered to the people of the country. “When Nirav Modi ran away after looting ₹ 12,000 crore, Mr Modi is silent, but he speaks loudly to claim credit for small and irrelevant things that are routinely done by various departments.”

Mr. Gandhi also said that Mr. Modi “should learn good governance” from Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. He felt that when it came to development of the State and welfare of the marginalised, the Congress government led by Mr. Siddaramaiah had proved to be worthy of emulation.