New Delhi: Taking a dig at the JDS-Congress government in Karnataka, Union minister Arun Jaitley on Monday dubbed state chief minister and JDS leader H.D. Kumaraswamy as a “tragedy king” and blamed the Congress of driving the CM to such desperation.

Wondering whether developments in Karnataka were a “preview of what the Congress and the federal front promise for the future”, the Union minister rubbished the efforts of Opposition parties to form a “federal front” to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP in 2019. Mr Kumaraswamy had recently said that he was “not happy” as Karnataka chief minister and was swallowing pain like Lord Shiva who drank poison.

Mr Jaitley, in a Facebook post, said what is happening in Karnataka is a “repeat” of what the Congress did to former PMs Chaudhary Charan Singh, Chandrasekhar, H.D. Deve Gowda and I.K. Gujral and wondered what will a “disparate group of parties with no ideological similarity offer to India” when a two party coalition in Karnataka has led to such a situation where the CM had to make such public statements.  

Taking a pot-shot at Opposition’s effort to stitch a “non-ideological opportunistic” alliance just to “Keep Modi out,” Mr Jaitley said that India cannot afford to have “bechara” (helpless) Prime Minister.

“He (Kumaraswamy) 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?,” Mr Jaitley said. He further said that non-ideological opportunistic coalitions always get trapped within their own contradictions.

Taking a dig at the Oppositions’ effort to challenge Mr Modi, the Union minister asked if the Prime Minister of 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.” The senior BJP leader asserted that Mr Modi has clearly demonstrated the advantages of a decisive leadership and the country’s PM and his government has to overcome the challenges that India faces today and cannot be seen like the Karnataka CM as a “tragedy king.”