Hyderabad: TRS Working president KT Rama Rao on Sunday remarked that even the grandchildren and successors of the Nizam of erstwhile Hyderabad don’t look back on him as much as leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) do.
This comes as a reaction to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s comments during the public meeting at state BJP president Bandi Sanjay’s ‘Praja Sangrama Yatra’ in Tukkuguda on Saturday. Amit Shah said that the BJP will soon overthrow the “Nizam” from the seat of power in Telangana referring to the state chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
The union minister also described the TRS as a party that is being “steered by the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM)”. KTR reacted to it by saying that the steering of TRS is firmly in the party leaders’ hands while the steering of BJP is in the hands of big corporates. “Two Gujaratis are selling the country and two Gujaratis are buying it. This is Hum do Hamaare do. Everyone knows about it,” he remarked.
“We asked him (Amit Shah) to speak on ‘nijam‘ (truth) of what the BJP-led centre contributed to the state of Telangana in the last eight years. But he spoke about the ‘Nizam’ and ‘Razakar’. Did he even once speak a word about anything that is of value to Telangana?” KTR asked.
Reacting to Amit Shah’s comments that he hadn’t seen a more corrupt government than the Telangana government, KTR pointed out various allegations of corruption made against the Karnataka government run by the BJP.
“These people (BJP) say that they are the stakeholders of the Hindu cause and a seer in Karnataka said that 30 percent commission has to be paid to get sanctioned grants. Their own party member in Karnataka said that Rs 2500 crores were demanded by the party for chief ministership and that person is still an active member of the BJP. A party that has put positions for sale has no moral authority to comment on corruption,” he remarked.
On the subject of funds sanctioned to the state in the last eight years, KTR informed that Telangana, in the form of taxes, has paid a sum of over Rs 3.6 lakh crores and in return received Rs 1.68 lakh crores as grants. He then played videos of Nizamabad MP Arvind Dharmapuri and Amit Shah quoting completely different numbers from each other.
“Their life is so full of lies and half-truths. The sweat of Telangana’s people is being used to feed people in states like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh that are run inefficiently by the BJP. Amit Shah on Saturday said that the centre has granted Rs 25000 crores for Mission Bhagiratha. Should I call him Amit Shah or Abaddala Baadshah (Emperor of lies) for this? Can a responsible union home minister speak like this?” KTR remarked.
Amit Shah also said that Telangana is currently under a huge pile of debt. To that, KTR retorted that the state is at 23rd position in a total of 29 states in the GSDP-debt ratio list, and the top debt-ridden states in the list like Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Haryana, and Uttarakhand.
“They commit to all these debts and blame us for wrongdoing. Telanagana’s debts are within the FRBM limits. When the BJP came to power at centre in 2014, the debt of the country was at Rs 56 lakh crores after 67 years of independence…Mr Modi has piled up another Rs 1 lakh crores to the already existing debt in just eight years. Who is actually piling up the debt?” KTR asked.
On the rise in fares of Petrol, diesel and LPG, KTR said that when the country is run by a ‘Naalayak‘ Prime minister, corporate entities get their loans forgiven while common citizens suffer immensely due to the price hike. “Rs 26.5 lakh crore was collected by the centre from common people due to this fare hike and big friendly businesspeople got around Rs 11.68 lakh crores of debt in the last ten years,” he said.
“Farmers in Gujarat are on roads demanding power supply. BJP MLA in Madhya Pradesh recently raised a voice against power shedding in that state. Power woes continue in Goa. Uttar Pradesh and Uttar Karnataka face power cuts with usage hitting a record high. Haryana imposes power cuts in industries. All these are BJP-led states. What exactly did the BJP double engine do in all these places?” he asked.
