Congress MP DK Suresh triggers row over Budget with ‘separate country’ remark

Bengaluru Rural MP and senior Congress leader DK Suresh, brother of Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar, made a controversial statement after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the interim budget on Thursday. He said that South India has always been ignored when it comes to providing funds and said that this will eventually lead them to demand a separate country for the southern part of the country.
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Speaking to reporters after the budget session, the MP said, “The central government has been ignoring South India when allocating funds. They allocate more funds to North India, especially the Hindi heartland. This is not changing, and if this continues, it will provoke us to get separated from the Hindi heartland and demand a separate country. We must get what we deserve.”
Union minister Rajiv Chandrasekhar slammed DK Suresha and alleged that the Congress party is doing divisive politics. He said, “ Once upon a time Cong was a party with leaders like Sardar Patel who worked to integrate India into one diverse yet unified nation. Today Rahuls Cong us represented by people like DK Suresh – brother of out on bail and corruption accused Cong Dy CM DK Shivakumar. Their agenda is to divide people with North-South Conflict and appeasement Politics.”
This is not the first time that the discussion of a separate country for South India has raked up. In August last year, DMK minister EV Velu said that the creation of ‘Dravida Nadu’ must happen.
He then said, “India doesn’t have any impact on us. I am making an open statement. India is part of the North and we belong to Tamil Nadu. The creation of Dravida Nadu should happen for the benefit of South Indians.” He was later slammed by many leaders from different parties and alleged that his party is trying to divide India.