Senior Congress leader and former Union minister S. Jaipal Reddy has described Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao as a “Merchant of Midnight Dreams” for pursuing “unrealistic” policies and making promises which cannot be fulfilled.
Speaking at the Meet-the-Press program organized by the Press Club of Hyderabad on Saturday, Jaipal Reddy said KCR has been making tall claims about the TRS Government being farmer friendly for waiving farm loans. But the fact is that the loan waiver in three installments during the last three years has only put more burden on the distressed farmers, he observed.
The Congress leader explained that the interest on the loans was being borne by the farmers for the last three years besides they were denied fresh loans by the banks. As a result, the farmers were forced to approach private money lenders and taking loans at exorbitant interest rates, he pointed out. He also ridiculed the claim of the Chief Minister about Telangana becoming a surplus State whereas the fact is that it is only revenue surplus as Rs 25,000 crore being the revenue from Hyderabad alone. In fact, the Congress regime at the Centre had ensured that the entire revenue from Hyderabad should go to Telangana State. Likewise, even with regard to power supply, it was ensured that Telangana share was more than AP, he observed and added that KCR lacked the courtesy of even acknowledging the magnanimity of the Congress.
Referring to KCR’s plans to build a new Secretariat, Jaipal Reddy pointed out that the present Secretariat might be old but the buildings on the premises were all new. It is nothing but splurging public money as KCR has penchant for everything to be new under his regime, he observed and quipped that wasting public money would be lucrative for the Chief Minister.
Pointing out the promise made by KCR to build two-bed room houses for the poor, allotting three acres of land each to the SCs and STs, changing land acquisition laws and so on, the Congress leader said all these only make the Chief Minister a “merchant of midnight dreams”.
Jaipal Reddy also targeted the three year “misrule” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Prime Minister made so many promises, which were never made in the past that they have become laughable. The demonetization of big currency notes, which he claimed to be revolutionary, has only destabilized the lives of the people. Nobody knows how much black money the government had brought from foreign banks leave alone the promise of depositing Rs 15 lakh to each person’s bank account, he lamented.
Stating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Centre and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in the State were only pursuing undemocratic and unrealistic policies, Jaipal Reddy stressed the need for all liberal parties to come together to check both before the nation and State end up in as turmoil. (NSS)