Centre is reluctant to support Telangana: KTR

HYDERABAD: TRS working president and minister K.T. Rama Rao on Sunday slammed the BJP-led Central government over rising fuel prices, alleging it was “reluctant to support Telangana” on most issues, and for “selling away the country’s assets” to private players.

Taking part in an hour-and-a-half long #AskKTR open session on Twitter, Rama Rao dubbed the BJP ‘Becho Janata ki Property’ party, and called BJP president J.P. Nadda a “cousin of Satya Harishchandra,” and took digs at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over rising prices of cooking gas.

Continuing the intensely contested political rhetoric between the BJP and the TRS over the past few weeks, Rao, responding to a question on rising LPG gas cylinder prices, said, “Modi hain to mumkin hain. Welcome to #AchheDin (sic).”

In response to another query on fuel prices, he said, “Modi ji is unstoppable. He is going to make sure we are the number one in the world.” The issue of rising fuel prices and taxation by the Centre and state has been a sore point between the two parties for some time now.

Rama Rao called the Mission Bhagiratha project a ‘game changer’ for millions of people in the state, saying the K. Chandrashekar Rao-led TRS government was infusing a lot of funds into improving healthcare in Telangana.

On another issue, Rama Rao said he was all for “hybrid work from office-cum-work from home model.” He urged the people to follow traffic rules, saying “it is the responsibility of citizens to follow rules. Police can enforce but it is our collective will to improve that will help.”

On the status of reopening of the Cotton Corporation of India office in Adilabad, Rama Rao replied: “This Union govt is only good at selling PSUs under the ‘Becho India’ scheme. They will not respond to our queries to reopen CCI.”

He also said he had “given up” on the prospect of Centre giving anything to Telangana, in response to a question on the ITIR (information techonology investment region), saying: “This NPA (non-performing assets) government will not give Telangana anything. Gave up on them.”

With BJP president J. P. Nadda recently at a public meeting saying there were several charges of corruption against the TRS government, Rama Rao shared a Tweet on how a BJP MP from Haryana had accused the BJP state government of corruption. Rama Rao hit back, saying, “What more can we say when their MPs and MLAs are opening up. Am sure Satya Harischandra’s cousin Nadda ji will look the other way.”

On the issue of him blocking the state Congress official’s Twitter handle, Rama Rao explained, “They have been abusive at a personal level of our Chief Minister.”

Rama Rao did not respond to Congress’ state in-charge Manickam Tagore’s question on how he had vastly increased his assets in the last eight years of his father’s Chief Ministership, and to “share the secret” with Telangana youth on how it could be done by others.

He also choose not to reply to BJP MP Arvind Dharmapuri, who asked why the TRS government was not paying its share of the PM Fasal Bima Yojana and why a Dalit youth, who was killed by his Muslim wife’s brother, was not protected by the state police.

Regarding the TRS’s role in challenging Prime Minister Modi and taking the party beyond Telangana, another issue, he replied cryptically, saying, “Who knows what the future has in store?”

On Hyderabad not being selected as a venue for cricket matches during South Africa’s tour of India, Rama Rao said, “Ask Jay Shah (BCCI secretary) and (Sourav) Ganguly (BCCI president).”

When asked if the BJP or the Congress would give a tough fight to TRS in the 2024 elections, he replied, “both and many more.”

However, several issues incuding civic problems and people's concerns remained unanswered.