Revanth Reddy, as TPCC president and Chief Minister, is leading the Congress' Lok Sabha campaign from the front, shuttling between Hyderabad and three districts, addressing five to six public meetings and road shows every day. Revanth Reddy took time out of his busy schedule for an interview with Deccan Chronicle at his residence on Monday.
Excerpts:
Why do you term Lok Sabha elections as a battle between "Telangana pride" and "Gujarat arrogance"?
I say this because Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, both from Gujarat, have deployed hundreds of Delhi police to Telangana state, who are camping in Hyderabad under the guise of election security but doing the job of intimidating and detaining Congress leaders over a purported doctored video of Amit Shah.
The Delhi police are overstepping their jurisdiction and resorting to strong-arm methods. They are neither consulting the state government nor the DGP on this case. Their high-handedness is totally unacceptable. Usually, during the elections, when the model code of conduct is in place and political parties are campaigning, on any issue or complaint, the affected political parties approach the police and file cases. In this case, the Union home ministry filed a case, based on which, the Delhi police issued notices to me and other Congress leaders. This itself shows they are exhibiting "Gujarat arrogance" against "Telangana pride".
KCR and KTR claim to be torchbearers of Telangana pride, but why are they keeping mum on this issue? Both owe an explanation to the people. Their silence proves that the BRS and the BJP have a secret pact to trouble the Congress. The Delhi police case is nothing but a conspiracy to arrest me and prevent me from campaigning in the Lok Sabha polls. Law and order is a state subject, and the Centre or any other state cannot interfere in this issue without consulting the state government concerned. But Modi and Amit Shah are usurping the powers of state like dictators which is not good for democracy or cooperative federalism specified in the Constitution.
You have been aggressively campaigning in every election meeting that the BJP will scrap reservations to the SCs, STs and OBCs if it comes to power for a third term. What is the basis for your argument?
The RSS agenda is to make India a ‘reservation-free country’ by 2025, when the Sangh will celebrate 100 years of its foundation. The BJP follows the RSS agenda. To abolish reservations, it requires to amend the Constitution. For this, the BJP needs to have two-third majority in the Lok Sabha. That's why the BJP is pitching for 400 Lok Sabha seats this time by coining the slogan 'Ab ki baar 400 paar'. This time, the BJP is not just seeking victory but asking for 400-plus seats.
There is an undeniable conspiracy behind this to scrap reservations by amending the Constitution with a two-third majority. To amend the Constitution, it also required the approval of 50 per cent of Legislative Assemblies of states. For this reason, the party has toppled non-BJP governments in eight states and formed BJP or BJP-led coalition governments. All these are clear indications of the BJP's plans to scrap reservations. Moreover, the BJP tried to amend the Constitution when Atal Behari Vajpayee was Prime Minister, who constituted a commission in February 2000 to review the Constitution.
But people dethroned the Vajpayee government in 2004 and brought in the Congress-led UPA government, which remained in power for 10 years till 2014 and protected reservations. After PM Modi came in 2014, attempts are being made again to scrap reservations. Several BJP and RSS leaders including then Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan spoke against the reservations publicly. That is what I am trying to explain to the people for which I am being targeted by Modi and Amit Shah.
But Modi, Shah and even RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat are claiming that reservations will not be scrapped.
No one believes those statements and claims. If it is true, then why are Modi and Amit Shah opposed to conducting the Census, which was due for 2021? Why are they opposing the caste census? They owe an explanation to the people of India. The Census is done in the country once every ten years for the past 150 years. In 2021, it was the first time that the decennial census of India was postponed in 150 years. They cited Covid as the reason for the postponement in 2021. What prevents them from conducting the Census now? They are deliberately doing it to abolish reservations.
Moreover, the Modi government has privatised several PSUs in the last 10 years. With this, SCs, STs and OBCs lose the benefit of job reservations because these jobs are not under quota in the private sector. The Modi government did not undertake filling up 30 lakh vacancies in Central government departments in the last ten years. If they were filled, SCs, STs and OBCs would have got 15 lakh jobs (50 per cent reservations). Now, the BJP is planning to scrap entire reservations altogether.
Why did you declare the Lok Sabha elections in Telangana as a 'referendum' on the Congress state government which is just five months old? Does it indicate your confidence or overconfidence, since no Opposition party had challenged you?
I am confident that the people of Telangana are with the Congress government, which is why I declared the Lok Sabha elections as a referendum on my own though no one demanded it. We assumed office on December 7, 2023. In between, there were Assembly Budget sessions in December and February. We hardly had 100 days to work before the Lok Sabha election code came into force from March 17.
In this short period of less than 100 days, we delivered on five out of Six Guarantees promised during Assembly polls. Most importantly, we started implementation of a free bus travel scheme for women in TSRTC buses and enhancement of medical insurance coverage from `5 lakh to `10 lakh under Aarogyasri within 48 hours of coming to power on December 9. This shows the Congress government's sincerity and commitment towards fulfilling our poll promises. We did not stop at that. We launched three more guarantees of free power to households up to 200 units and gas cylinders for `500 in February. We launched the Indiramma houses scheme of construction of 4.5 lakh houses for the poor on March 11.
Nearly 30 lakh women are availing the free bus scheme every day, while nearly 40 lakh households are getting the benefit of free power and gas cylinders every month. No has government implemented welfare schemes benefiting lakhs of people every day and every month in such a short span like we did in Telangana state.
We filled nearly 30,000 jobs in various departments and I personally handed over appointment letters to selected candidates at the LB Stadium. We issued TSPSC Group-1 notification for 563 posts and Mega DSC notification to fill 11,062 posts. All these were done within 100 days of coming to power.
We are going to waive crop loans of farmers up to `2 lakh each by August 15. I strongly believe that the people of Telangana have understood and recognised our sincerity and commitment. They will vote for Congress. It is the reason why I declared the Lok Sabha polls as a referendum on my government on my own.
How important is Telangana for the Congress as far as Lok Sabha polls are concerned?
I am confident that Congress-led I.N.D.I.A. bloc will come to power at the Centre in June. If we give more MPs to the I.N.D.I.A. bloc government from Telangana, we will command more respect and accordingly we can secure more funds and projects for the state from the Union government in the next five years.
We can ensure implementation of promises made to Telangana during bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 such as setting up of Bayyaram steel plant, Kazipet railway coach factory etc., which the previous BRS government in the state and the BJP government at the Centre failed to fulfill in the past ten years. For this reason, I am urging the people to give 14 Lok Sabha seats to the Congress from Telangana.
You have set yourself a target to win 14 out of 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana. Is it possible to achieve this task given that there are reports of a BJP resurgence? How can you ignore the BRS which won nine Lok Sabha seats in 2019?
The BRS collapsed after it lost the Assembly polls in December last year. Its leaders and cadre base from the villages to the state level have migrated to either the Congress or the BJP. With this, Lok Sabha polls have become a straight fight between the Congress and the BJP in Telangana state and BRS has completely lost its relevance. The BRS is contesting the polls just for namesake.
Even KCR and KTR know this very well. But they are taking out bus yatras and other yatras in their desperate bid to save their party from complete collapse. No one is taking the BRS seriously. In fact, the BRS is working for the victory of the BJP in at least five Lok Sabha constituencies. It fielded dummy candidates in Chevella, Malkajgiri, Medak, Secunderabad and Mahbubnagar as part of a secret pact to help the BJP win these seats by transferring its vote. KCR is doing this to secure bail for his daughter Kavitha, jailed in the Delhi liquor scam.
Coming to the BJP, our surveys indicate that it is difficult for the BJP even to retain its four seats in Nizamabad, Adilabad, Karimnagar and Secunderabad, let alone their tall claims of bagging double digit seats in Telangana. The subaltern, comprising the SCs, STs, and OBCs, who comprise over 85 per cent of population in the state are worried that their reservations will be scrapped if the BJP comes to power. They have decided to fully support the Congress, which is fighting to protect reservations and also enhance reservations to these sections in proportion to their ratio of population by conducting a caste survey across India and by removing the 50 per cent cap on reservations to enhance quotas.
BJP and BRS leaders are repeatedly stating that the Congress government will not last long and will collapse after the Lok Sabha polls. What do you have to say on this?
My government will complete not just five years in office but will remain in power for the next 10 years until 2034. This has been the trend in the state since 1994 and it will continue to be so. The TDP was in power from 1994 to 2004, the Congress from 2004 to 2014, the BRS from 2014 to 2024. The Congress will be in power from 2024 to 2034. If the people bless our government, it will serve beyond 2034 also. But one thing is clear. The BRS and the BJP are talking on the same lines on this issue which again proves their nexus to destabilise my government.
BJP and BRS leaders say it's not just about the Six Guarantees but the Congress made over 400 promises in its manifesto for Assembly elections and it's not possible to implement them in the next five years even if the entire country's budget is spent on it? What's your take on this?
We have undertaken a marathon exercise before releasing our manifesto for Assembly polls. We made these promises after we were fully convinced that they could be implemented by maintaining strict financial discipline and avoiding wasteful expenditure. The previous BRS government indulged in financial mismanagement during the last ten years. It pushed Telangana state into a debt trap of `7 lakh crore.
We were forced to pay Rs 27,500 crore in the last four months towards repayment of loans. Despite this, we managed to adjust `7,500 crore for Rythu Bandhu. We are paying salaries and pensions to staff on the first of every month. We will plug leakages in tax collections, explore new revenue generation sources without imposing additional taxes on people and mobilise funds for the Six Guarantees and other poll promises. Funds will not be a constraint for implementing poll promises if finances are managed properly.
