The Janata Dal (Secular) has no moral right to call itself ‘‘secular’’ after its alliance with the BJP, the Congress said on Friday after the new coalition came to power in Karnataka. ‘‘By calling themselves secular, they are playing a cruel joke on the people who voted for a secular government in the state,’’ Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said. He said the results of last elections were clearly in favour of a secular government and by allying with the BJP, the JD(S) had gone against the people’s wishes. ‘‘People had rejected the BJP, but the greed for power and opportunism of the JD(S) has undermined the spirit of the verdict,’’ he said.On airport modernisation, the Congress spokesperson said the government was in consonance with the NCMP. ‘‘We are not privatising the AAI, only two airports are being modernised with private funds. The party supports the government in this move,’’ he said. Singhvi added that the NCMP commitment was not to privatise profit-making PSUs whereas off-loading government equity without losing control in these PSUs was acceptable.
