On Thursday, February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Interim Budget for 2024. While reacting to the budget, Lok Sabha MP from Bengaluru Rural, Congress leader DK Suresh accused the centre of not releasing funds to South Indian states. He also went on to say that in future, South Indian states may demand a separate country for themselves and become a separate nation.
DK Suresh, who is the brother of Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar, said in response to the budget that the money collected through from Southern states are being used in Northern states. The Congress MP further warned that if this alleged ‘injustice’ continues, they (Southern states) will be forced to demand a separate country.
Budget Reactions LIVE | Congress MP DK Suresh Says 'Taxes From South Indian States Going To North,' Demands Separate Country For South India #BudgetWithRepublic #Budget2024 #Congress
— Republic (@republic) February 1, 2024
READ HERE- https://t.co/lziIfqkyxB pic.twitter.com/oYVOhqATUE
DK Suresh was speaking to media personnel outside the Parliament after presentation of the budget. He went on to say that the money from southern states is being distributed in the northern states.
In response, BJP MP from Bengaluru South, Tejasvi Surya has criticised the Congress MP for his divisive language. He wrote, “While the Congress Party has a history of ‘Divide and Rule’, its MP Sri @DKSureshINC plays the trick again now, wanting the North and South to be divided.”
Rashtrakavi Kuvempu, in our Nada Geethe, says, "Jaya Bharatha Jananiya Tanujaate, Jaya Hey Karnataka Mathe (Victory to you Mother Karnataka, The Daughter of Mother India!).
— Tejasvi Surya (@Tejasvi_Surya) February 1, 2024
While the Congress Party has a history of 'Divide and Rule', its MP Sri @DKSureshINC plays the trick again… pic.twitter.com/ou5cPNz5r7
“Kannadigas will never allow this to happen. We will give them a befitting reply in the Lok Sabha elections & ensure that #CongressMuktBharat attains fruition”, MP Tejasvi Surya further wrote.
Earlier, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the last budget of Modi government’s second term. This was the 6th budget presented by Ms Sitharaman.
Congress’ history of stoking a North-South divide
This is not the first time that Congress and its ecosystem has tried to create a North-South divide in the country. Back in November 2023, current Telangana CM Revanth Reddy fanned ‘North-South’ divide in his attempt to rundown chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao.
In a discussion with India Today in November 2023, Reddy asserted that the first CM of Telangana, K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) has ‘Bihari genes’ and indicated that he was a better choice for the state than KCR. “My DNA is Telangana. KCR’s DNA is Bihar. He belongs to Bihar. KCR’s caste is Kurmi. They migrated from Bihar to Vijayanagaram and from there to Telangana. Telangana DNA is better than Bihar DNA,” he can be heard saying.
Further, following the humiliating losses in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh in the recently concluded assembly elections, the Congress ecosystem tried to rationalise the setbacks by amping up a dangerous narrative: stoking up the north-south divide and deepening fissures within the Indian society.
A raft of social media users from the Congress ecosystem resorted to inflaming the ‘north-south’ divide, a political construct long championed by the divisive parties to whip up regional chauvinism among the masses and ward off the threat of national parties making inroads on their home turfs. But for the Congress supporters and ecosystem, playing up the north-south divide was an easy way out to rationalise away their mortifying poll-drubbing after the rare political triumph in Telangana, which had instilled an air of arrogance in Congress supporters.
