Need leader like Modi, not tragedy king like Kumaraswamy: Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday accused Congress of driving Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy to desperation, saying it did the same to Charan Singh, Chandra Shekhar, H D Deve Gowda and I K Gujral when they were the prime ministers of governments backed by the party.

Taking a pot-shot at opposition's effort to stich a "non-ideological opportunistic" alliance just to "Keep Modi Out", Jaitley said in a hard-hitting Facebook post that India cannot afford to have 'bechara' (helpless) Prime Minister. He said that in the past few days, "we witnessed" Kumaraswamy baring his emotions with tears, wetting his eyes and declining to accept bouquets and garlands.

Indicating a strain in ties with the Congress, Kumaraswamy recently said he was "not happy" as Karnataka Chief Minister and was swallowing pain like Lord Shiva who drank poison. He is Chief Minister of the coalition government, wherein Congress is a bigger party.

"He was candid enough to publicly state... Listening to these statements of an Honourable Chief Minister, my memory took me back to the dialogues of the tragedy era of Hindi cinema.”

"If this is the consequence of a two-party coalition, what is it that a disparate group of parties with no ideological similarity offer to India?", Jaitley said.

He further said that non-ideological opportunistic coalitions always get trapped within their own contradictions. Their only object is survival and not service of the nation, he said, added that longevity of such coalitions too is a suspect.

"If the Prime Minister of such a coalition has to weep before the cameras with an only wish of how to exit from office, it will be a scenario worse than the policy paralysis of UPA II," Jaitley said in the blog, 'Is the Karnataka a Preview of what the Congress and the Federal Front Promise for the Future?'.

"The Congress firmly believes that only members of one family can rule India. If anybody else gets a chance, he should be pushed to the desperation of throwing his hands up and weeping publicly," he said.

The country, he said, has been watching with keen interest the developments in Karnataka in the past two months.

It is "a repeat of what the Congress did to Chaudhary Charan Singh, Shri Chandrasekhar, Shri H.D. Deve Gowda and Shri I.K. Gujral? It is the obvious consequence of a non-ideological opportunistic alliance with no positive agenda. The basis of the negative agenda is ‘Keep Modi Out'", he said.

Jaitley further wrote that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has clearly demonstrated the advantages of a decisive leadership.

"India's Prime Minister and his Government has to overcome the challenges that India faces today. He cannot be seen like the Chief Minister of Karnataka as a tragedy king."

"If such a coalition is a cup of poison, why even dream of inflicting it on the nation? The leader of the world's fastest-growing economy cannot be a 'Bechara'," Jaitley said.