Hyderabad: Civil society groups in Telangana have united to oppose both the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming Telangana Assembly elections on November 30. BJP and BRS parties, they say, resorted to ‘dictatorial rulership’ to exploit people’s expectations. They repress opposition, and silencing criticism, Civil society groups warned.
Though unusual, this non-political coalition of organisations traditionally inclined to act as watchdogs rather than directly engage in electoral politics has given a collective call to the people of Telangana to use their vote as a tool of accountability against these parties. “The BRS government exploited the public resources with dictatorial rule and corruption. They betrayed the students and unemployed youth with promises of jobs. For the government to be accountable to the people, the people should use their vote in this election in such a way as to teach a lesson to the rulers,” civil society members said.
Civil society members, including Dr. M F Gopinath of Bharath Bachao, Prof. K Haragopal of Telangana Prajala Joint Action Committee (JAC), Akunuri Murali of Jago Telangana, Desai Karunakar of Prajaswamyam, and veteran journalist Pasam Yadagiri, collectively accused the BRS government of betraying the aspirations of people, in joint statement that issued during a press meet in Hyderabad. “BRS and BJP parties are coordinating their actions behind the scenes, so there is a need to oppose both parties together,” they alleged.
Further, the coalition highlighted several governance failures under the BRS regime, such as the Kaleshwaram project’s collapse, the neglect of tenant farmers, and the TSPSC scam. “Kaleshwaram project pillar collapsed due to faulty design after spending more than 1 lakh crores, the stubborn attitude of not recognising the 22 lakh tenant farmers, the TSPSC scam, failure to fill vacant posts in all departments including teachers, closure of thousands of schools, failure of many schemes like two-bedroom houses, Dalit Bandhu, three-acre land for Dalits, encouraging consumption of alcohol destroying families – all these are the signs of governance failure of this government besides the unilateralism of the chief minister,” they said.
“With policies like anti-farmer laws, demonetisation, privatisation of public sector units, and handing over all the country’s resources to big corporates like Adani, the BJP government has proved itself to be against the common people and pro-corporate,” they alleged.
“Telangana is a land of revolution. It’s people who should question and have the courage to protest, only then can they protect democracy and the interests of the people,” they said, urging the voters to take a stance.
The joint statement was issued during a press meet in Hyderabad recently, leaders of various influential platforms such as Telangana Prajala JAC, Jago Telangana, Muslim Organisations JAC, Telangana Samakhya, Bharat Bachao, Bharat Jodo Abhiyan, and others convened. This collective, comprising nearly 100 organisations, has been instrumental in various campaigns and public outreach programmes in the lead-up to the elections.
