Hyderabad: MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao was a “shrewd and sagacious statesman” who had achieved most of the vision he had for the state.
“KCR resolved the issues of power, water, irrigation. Under his government Telangana witnessed residential schools for Dalits, OBCs and minorities which is nowhere in India. We will oppose, but we have to acknowledge the achievements,” Owaisi said, in response to a question over Opposition unity as proposed by Rao. Owaisi was speaking at a press conference at Darussalam on Tuesday.
Over the issue of Rahul Gandhi as face of Opposition, Owaisi held that Prime Minister Modi wanted the Congress leader to be the face of the Opposition, but the AIMIM would not fall into the trap and would be fighting real issues the people were facing. “When the 540 faces (contestants) put up a united fight it would become tough for BJP. If Opposition has the face, then it is BJP which will get benefited. It's no more a BJP, it's now Modi party,” he observed.
Over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Hyderabad, Owaisi urged him to resolve the issues of the Metro Rail in the Old City. “We hope that he funds for Metro’s extension towards Falaknuma from MGBS and clears the proposal of the Metro which was cancelled by Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri,” the MIM chief said.
On the issue of violence during the Sri Rama Navami celebrations across states, Owaisi blamed the ruling parties — the JD(U)-RJD government in Bihar and the Trinamul Congress government in West Bengal — for their failure to control the situation. “When you are giving permission, you should ensure that violence does not take place,” he added, calling the incidents pre-planned.
He said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav had failed to stop the violence despite being alerted by intelligence reports. They stood to gain because the violence would bring the minorities together and the majority community would gather behind the BJP.
He said that because of the failure of the Bihar government, a 100-year-old madrasa was burnt, along with more than 4,000 books including rare manuscripts. “There is no remorse on the faces of the Bihar Chief Minister and the RJD leaders. The Chief Minister was having an 'iftaar' yesterday. He (Nitish Kumar) and his coalition partner (Tejashwi) should have visited those places. They should have seen that one 'minar' of a mosque was damaged.”
