Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (MS)

Bengaluru, Aug 13: The news of shifting of the Aero India Show, the aviation exhibition, that was being held in Bengaluru since the last two decades, to Lucknow has caused severe criticism and outrage in the state of Karnataka. Congress and JD (S) leaders have accused BJP that this was done keeping in mind the upcoming Lok Sabha elections to appease the people of Uttar Pradesh.

"If the Aero India Show is shifted indeed to Lucknow, it will be a great humiliation done to the Kannadigas by defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman," said deputy chief minister (DCM) Dr G Parameshwar. He was speaking after partaking in a programme that was organized at the Ravindra Kalakshetra in the city on Sunday, August 12.

Aero India Show - 2017

Parameshwar further complained that "The state government does not have any concrete information about the shifting of the show from Bengaluru to Lucknow. In case if this is true, it will be a huge insult to the Kannadigas by the defence minister who got elected to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka itself,"

"The aviation exhibition is being held since the last 22 years in the city of Bengaluru and it is a matter of pride and honour to the country and state. Earlier governments of the state also have extended their best co-operation for this event. The present government is also giving full support for this event. Then why this event is being shifted? There is no infrastructure here?” he questioned.

"If the event is shifted, then there will be a severe condemnation of the same," he warned.

When Parameshwar was questioned whether this move is political, he replied by saying that if the news of shifting is true, then we must understand that there is no other reason but political.

H D Kumaraswamy, chief minister of the state, accused BJP and said, "The Aero India Show is being organized in Bengaluru since 1996. However, the move of shifting this to Lucknow this year is not right. The central government has taken this decision with the Lok Sabha elections in mind. Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of Lok Sabha seats in the country. Because of this, the central government is shifting this event to Lucknow. Thereby it is doing injustice to the state of Karnataka. This is not right. Bengaluru city has got the entire basic infrastructure necessary for the show. However, so far I have not received any official communication from the center in this regard,"

D K Shivakumar, irrigation minister, urged that the state BJP leaders have to take a delegation to center and put pressure on the Prime Minister to hold the Aero India Show in Bengaluru itself.

"The decision of the central government of shifting the Aero India show to Lucknow is not correct. Chief minister Kumaraswamy has already met the defence minister and appealed her not to shift the show. State BJP leaders like Yeddyurappa, Sadananda Gowda, Ananth Kumar, Jagadish Shettar and union ministers of Karnataka state should question the injustice that is meted out to the state of Karnataka by the central government. The state government is once again going to urge the central government to retain this show in the city itself," said, D K Shivakumar.

Siddaramaiah, former chief minister of the state expressed his unhappiness on the issue on Twitter and said, "Due to the stance of the BJP, defence deals are being taken away from the state one by one. It is not right to shift the air show even when the necessary infrastructure is available in the city. The bitter news of shifting the air show from the city is like rubbing salt over the wound of Rafael deal which was snatched from HAL,"