HYDERABAD: Led by its working president and minister K.T. Rama Rao, the TRS on Sunday carpet-bombed the BJP with scathing attacks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar.
Smarting under Shah’s no-holds-barred attack on their leader and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, several ministers and leaders, including minister T. Harish Rao, chimed in their own takes on what they thought of the Modi-Shah combine, especially their role in development of Telangana.
Rama Rao, accompanied by several ministers and some TRS MLAs, while addressing a press conference in the city, took up the election gauntlet thrown down by the BJP, saying the TRS too was ready for elections any time.
“Let Modi dissolve Parliament and go to the polls. We will send the single engine of theirs in Delhi back. What has the BJP done in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa, where people have voted for ‘double engine’ governments? They have power cuts and their own party leaders accuse the central BJP leadership of corruption,” Rama Rao said, adding that Telangana was not competing with other states in India, but with the best in the world.
He said that the Chief Minister had reiterated that elections would be held on time, at the end of the completion of the current term. The TRS government’s Bangaru (golden) Telangana model will also be implemented in the rest of the country, he said.
Rama Rao called Modi a ‘nalayak (incompetent) Prime Minister’, paying Shah back in his own coin, after Shah described as ‘nikammi and brhasthachari (useless and corrupt)’ the TRS government at the Tukkuguda public meeting a day prior.
Rama Rao said that Shah was ‘abaddala badshah (emperor of lies)’, adding, “what Shah said is just tukku (garbage).”
Rama Rao also poured scorn on Bandi Sanjay for pleading for ‘one chance’ to rule Telangana. “Just by saying ‘please, please, please’ you won’t come to power. People will decide on that,” he said.
“Power is not some chewing tobacco or cloves that one can pick from his pocket and give just because someone else pleads for it,” Rama Rao said.
He alleged that Shah’s comment that if the BJP comes to power, only then will it buy paddy from the state was unconstitutional and against the law. It is the Centre’s responsibility to ensure food security for the nation, he said.
In Toopran, finance and health minister T. Harish Rao said that Amit Shah should be called ‘Myth Shah’ for lying about Telangana. “Don’t be surprised if BJP does not keep its promises as Shah is known for his ‘jumla’ politics. He will easily turn around and say his promises were just for votes,” Harish Rao said, adding, Shah should explain why Gujarat rejected the PM Fasal Bima Yojana.
“We will not implement Fasal Bima as it helps private companies not farmers,” Harish said. He wondered how if irrigation in Telangana had not improved, had paddy production risen from 99 lakh tonnes in 2014 to 2.5 lakh tonnes now.
In Khammam, TRS MP Nama Nageswara Rao said that Amit Shah had lied that the TRS did not support the BJP government on Article 370. “I spoke on it and expressed the TRS’ support for it. Amit Shah was present in the House then,” he said.
In Warangal, minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao asked why Amit Shah, or other BJP leaders, did not utter Jai Telangana even a single time, adding that Shah did not speak of any of the state bifurcation promises.
MLA P. Sudharshan Reddy wanted to know why Kaleshwaram was not given national project status, while MLA Ch Dharma Reddy said that the BJP was clearly jealous of Telangana’s development under the Chandrashekar Rao government. He said “KCR’s governance was not that of Nizam, but of nijalu (truth).”
Among others who took on the Modi-Shah combine were Balka Suman, Methuku Anand, P. Kaushik Reddy and Krishank Manne, while several other party leaders took to social media platforms to castigate the BJP.
