Telangana: Harish Rao demands Piyush Goyal’s apology

Hyderabad: Telangana Finance minister T Harish Rao demanded an apology from Union Food and Public Distribution minister Piyush Goyal for his comments of ‘broken rice’ with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) delegation in New Delhi two weeks ago.

Speaking at the Telangana Bhavan on Friday, the minister wondered how Goyal could ask Telangana’s citizens to eat broken rice. “He has called us ‘nasamajhwale’ (ignorant), but according to me, you are the one who doesn’t understand. You don’t understand the farmers’ struggle and pain,” he said. He added that the way Goyal spoke was very similar to how the opposition spoke during the state bifurcation.

Rao said that no one who has insulted Telangana’s people has come out of the situation unscathed and he took the examples of former Andhra Pradesh chief ministers Kiran Kumar Reddy and YS Rajasekhar Reddy during the Telangana movement.

The minister asked what the union minister Kishan Reddy was doing while the centre insulted Telangana’s people. “The centre will support corporations, but won’t help farmers. They are anti-farmer, anti-workers, anti-women,” he expressed.

“Telangana’s BJP leaders still have a chance to decide who they are siding with- the centre or farmers. They can still decide whether to persuade the centre to buy the paddy or not,” he said.