Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Sunday launched a scathing attack on the BJP ruled government in Karnataka, alleging that it was ‘steeped in corruption’. Calling the Basavaraj Bommai-led government ‘dead’, Siddaramaiah said, “There is corruption in the recruitment of police sub-inspectors, lecturers and engineers in the state.”

He was responding to reporters’ queries on the scam unearthed in the recruitment process of Police Sub-Inspectors recently. Several officials were accused of being involved in the irregularities in the recruitment exam held in October last year for filling up 545 PSI posts. Referring to the state government’s decision to cancel the exam following allegations of corruption, the Congress veteran sought to know what will happen to the candidates who honestly cleared the examination.

“Whose fault is it? Who is responsible for it? The government is responsible. Since the government is corrupt, these things happen,” he said. Responding to the ruling BJP’s charge that such irregularities have taken place when the Congress government headed by him was in power, Siddaramaiah rubbished it and called it an ‘unacceptable argument’.

“Conduct an inquiry if something happened in the past. Why are you silent? You are in power now, your government is there, administrative machinery is with you, you probe and punish the guilty,” Siddaramaiah, the leader of opposition in the state assembly, said. Wondering whether the BJP was in power to recall incidents that occurred in the past, the former CM said the state government is answerable to the people and the opposition.

He challenged the state government to initiate action against the Congress leaders if they were involved in any such incident in the past. Siddaramaiah accused state Home Minister Araga Jnanendra of having failed to prevent crimes against women. On the power crisis in parts of the state, Siddaramaiah called it ‘artificial’ and alleged that it was the result of misgovernance of the government. According to him, there is enough power in Karnataka, which is not being distributed properly. Agreeing that there was a shortage of coal in the country, he said Karnataka gets power from various renewable sources of energy including solar and wind energy.