On Friday, September 8, Union Minister of State Rajeev Chandrashekhar slammed the Congress government in Karnataka over its alleged appeasement politics. The Union Minister highlighted the guidelines and qualifications for the Congress government’s Subsidy Scheme for the Purchase of Taxi/Goods Vehicle/ Passenger Autorickshaw. It is notable that the said scheme is available only for religious minorities and it is implemented by the Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation Limited.
As per an advertisement attached by the minister in his tweet, a subsidy of 50% of the vehicle’s value with a maximum of 50% is being offered to religious minorities to purchase Auto Rikshwas, Taxis and Goods vehicles. The Swavalambi Sarathi Scheme was launched by Karnataka Housing and Minorities Welfare Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan last month.
Taking to X, Minister Chandrashekhar said that the scheme is meant exclusively for the non-Hindus keeping even the financially deprived Hindu communities out of it. The union minister said that it is a brazen discrimination and violation of Article 14 of the Constitution from a party that goes abroad and talks of Bharat’s constitution being under threat. He called it “State sponsored Conversion inducement”.
He called the scheme an ‘example of shameless, lazy, appeasement politics of bribing certain communities by Rahul Gandhi’s Congress in Karnataka.’
Rajeev Chandrashekhar said, “Shameless bribing of a community by using public resources meant for All Kannadigas. Brazen discrimination & violation of Art 14 of the constitution from a party that goes abroad and talks of Bharat’s constitution being under threat. State-sponsored Conversion inducement. This is the appeasement and corrupt politics of Dynasts of UPA/I.N.D.I alliance.”
The minister also pointed out the possibility of corruption using the scheme, as he claimed people can buy vehicles under subsidy and then immediately sell the vehicle at a price lower than the market price but higher than the subsidised price, thereby making a profit. He gave an example that someone can buy a vehicle worth ₹6 lakh for ₹3 lakh under the scheme, and then sell it for ₹5 lakh, making a profit of ₹2 lakh.
“Buy a vehicle for Rs 6L, using 50% subsidy, sell it the next day for Rs 5L. Cool profit of Rs 2L,” Chandrasekhar wrote.
Although the scheme guidelines mention the vehicle purchased under this scheme should not be sold to others during the tenure of the loan, people can still make money this way if the vehicle is unofficially sold and the registration is not changed. However, that will be illegal, and both the buyer and seller can face issues if the vehicle meets with some incident or accident.