BJP state govt will purchase all rice, end Muslim quota: Shah

HYDERABAD: Senior BJP leader and Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday emphatically announced that once the BJP came to power in Telangana state it would buy every single grain of boiled rice produced by the farmers. Defending the Centre, he said it was the job of the state government, in which, the K. Chandrashekar Rao-led TRS government had failed.

On the issue of paddy procurement, Shah said it was the responsibility of the state to purchase boiled rice, adding that Telangana was trying to hide its failures by diverting blame and trying to paint the Centre as the culprit on this issue. Directing his next comment at the Chief Minister, Shah said, "If you cannot do this, then resign. The BJP will take charge and the BJP government in the state will buy every single kilo of boiled rice from the farmers in the state."

Once the BJP formed the government in the state, he further said, it would scrap all reservations for people on religious grounds, meaning the Muslims and other religious minorities, saying such reservations had harmed socially-backwards groups like the Dalits, tribals and the OBCs (other backward castes). He said once reservations for minorities were scrapped by the BJP, the freed-up opportunities would give immense benefits to the SCs, STs, and BC category beneficiaries.

Amit Shah’s announcement came at a hugely attended public meeting at Tukkuguda, in the outskirts of the city, marking the culmination of the second phase of state BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar’s Praja Sangrama Yatra.

Amit Shah, who repeatedly called on the crowd and BJP workers in the state to “uproot and throw out the KCR government,” said the TRS government was being run by a corrupt family, which had not kept any of its promises – neelu, nedhulu, neyamakalu (water, resources and jobs). The TRS relies on ‘tantra and mantra’, which cannot help Telangana, he said.

What this state needs is a double-decker government, with the BJP governing both at the Centre and in the state, Shah said, to great cheers from the enthusiastic crowds.

Amit Shah said that the TRS government, after pushing Telangana into severe debt, was still asking for more loans.

“Why do you need more loans? Is it to benefit your son or your daughter,” Shah questioned Chandrashekar Rao. “I have been in public life from the age of 13; in all these years, I have never seen a more nikammi aur brasht (useless and corrupt) government,” he said, referring to the TRS government.

The BJP leader repeatedly reminded people that Chandrashekar Rao had come to power twice making tall promises like two-bedroom houses, jobs, and drinking water but had not delivered on any of them.

“Let the BJP come to power in Telangana, and I promise you from this stage here today that the BJP will fulfil that aspirations of neelu, nedhulu, neyamakalu,” Shah thundered, adding, “I am here to promise today that the BJP will provide a ‘surakshit aur samruddh’ (secure and bountiful) government in Telangana.”

Shah’s address, which drew a rapturous response from the mammoth, left no one in doubt why he was at the public meeting. He repeatedly called on people to throw out the TRS government, saying, “Chandrashekar Rao sits in his five-star farmhouse planning when to hold elections. We are ready. Even if you have them tomorrow, the BJP is ready. Go ahead and announce the elections.”

In a thinly veiled reference to questions thrown at him by TRS leaders, Shah quickly ran through a list of programmes and schemes that the Narendra Modi government at the Centre introduced but which, he said, were re-labelled by Chandrashekar Rao as his own.

“Chandrashekar Rao pastes his and his son’s pictures to promote family rule, stealing credit for programmes such as rice for poor, BC welfare, and sits on irrigation projects for which clearances have been given by the Centre,” Shah said.

“The Modi government has so far sanctioned Rs 2,52,202 crore for Telangana. This list is long, Sanjay will reveal the entire list and details,” he said. “But the KCR government either takes credit or refuses to pass on the benefits of Central schemes like Aayushman Bharat or Kisam Bima to potential beneficiaries.”

Shah used the public meeting to take aim at the AIMIM, when he asked the crowd if people were ready to throw out the ‘government of the Nizam’, to which the crowd responded with a loud yes.

He also said that TRS and Chandrashekar Rao did not support the abrogation of Article 370 because he feared the AIMIM. He asked the crowd if they supported the scrapping of Article 370, to which the crowd again responded with loud cheers of approval.

Shah said Chandrashekar Rao was sitting in the lap of the AIMIM, and that the AIMIM held and controlled the steering of the TRS’ car. “It is time for the people in Telangana to throw out both the TRS, and the AIMIM,” he said.

The KCR government, which promised to celebrate the Telangana Vimochana Divas, failed to do so as it hobnobs with descendants of the Razakars, Amit Shah said, adding that once the BJP comes to power in Telangana, it would celebrate the true liberation day of Telangana, which made it possible for Telangana and rest of the then princely state of Hyderabad, a part of India.

Shah also castigated the TRS for violence and oppression of its political rivals, saying it was driving people speaking up against its misrule to death. The Union home minister warned that there would be no stopping the BJP until those responsible for the death of its party worker Sai Ganesh in the Khammam district are punished.