CH NEWS, BENGALURU The political crossfire surrounding Karnataka's financial health intensified sharply as former Chief Minister and Member of Parliament Basavaraja Bommai launched a scathing counter-attack against Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar. Bommai accused the current administration of attempting to deflect public scrutiny and mask severe economic mismanagement by repeatedly shifting blame onto previous governments. The fiery exchange follows a leaked internal advisory note from the State Finance Department, which cautioned the government against launching major new development projects or sanctioning unbudgeted expenditures, citing a precarious fiscal squeeze, soaring debt levels, and a massive backlog of pending bills exceeding ₹36,000 crore across key departments. Reacting to Chief Minister Shivakumar’s defense—wherein he claimed that similar cautionary fiscal notes had been issued during preceding administrations led by B.S. Yediyurappa and Bommai himself—the former Chief Minister argued that drawing comparisons across timelines ignores fundamentally different macroeconomic realities and fiscal indicators. Bommai emphasized that previous administrations successfully navigated extreme economic contractions, maintaining strict fiscal discipline despite the unprecedented disruptions caused by successive waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. He noted that while the state's total outstanding liabilities hovered around ₹65,000 crore during his tenure, the current Congress government has nearly doubled the debt burden to approximately ₹1.20 lakh crore. Furthermore, Bommai contrasted the surplus budgets delivered during his administration with the consecutive deficit budgets presented by the current dispensation, asserting that these figures expose a systemic failure in revenue administration and resource allocation. The senior BJP leader lamented that Karnataka's current misfortune stems from a perceived absence of political will to implement tough corrective measures and arrest the deteriorating economic trajectory. With the state's cumulative liabilities nearing the critical 25 percent limit stipulated under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) framework, and borrowing capacities nearly exhausted, Bommai urged the administration to stop manufacturing political diversions. Instead, he called upon the Chief Minister to acknowledge the empty state treasury transparently and enact rigorous expenditure-control protocols to safeguard Karnataka’s long-term financial stability. Deepening economic stand-off As internal fiscal warnings and opposition attacks converge on the state's handling of public finances and drought relief allocations, the debate over budgetary sustainability continues to intensify within legislative circles.