Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 26: Redirecting the arsenal he always used to attack the Congress, the prime minister Narendra Modi on Thursday targeted the Andhra Pradesh chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) on “dynasty politics” and said if the state has to progress, dynasty politics must be defeated.
Launching a no holds barred political onslaught against KCR, Modi accused his TRS government as being “corrupt” and “being run by a single family” which was detrimental to the interests of the poor and the development of the state.
Amid chants of “Modi…Modi” at the Begumpet airport tarmac where a makeshift stage was put up to accord a grand welcome to him by the Telangana unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Modi said the agitation for separate Telangana was certainly not meant for a single family to “enjoy unheralded power and loot the state.”
While the TRS responding to Modi’s attack showed examples of the union home minister Amit Shah and the defence minister Rajnath Singh whose family members too are holding important offices, KCR, who left Hyderabad for Bengaluru just a few hours before Modi’s arrival, hit back at the prime minister for “lecturing people” while the country’s economy was fast sliding downward and claimed that “important changes at the national level” would be coming soon.
Modi exhorted the people in the state to do away with dynasty politics and elect a government which would work for the people. Claiming that the BJP was “poised to create history in Telangana in the upcoming elections,” Modi said “Family politics does not allow enthusiastic youths to enter politics. They are deprived of opportunities. This is the 21st century and we should do away with dynasty politics in Telangana too. Wherever dynasty politics has been wiped out, there has been development and growth. Family politics is a threat to democracy, and as soon as a ‘parivari party’ comes to power, they become corrupt. The family tries to hold on to power for as long as possible,” Modi said.
Modi was in Hyderabad to attend the 20th-anniversary celebrations of the Indian School of Business (ISB), on his way to Chennai.
He said the “Telangana people were witnessing first hand on what happens when a family takes over the reins of power”. “Corruption becomes the main face of such dynastic parties who can think only of self-interest without bothering the problems or welfare of the poor and marginalised sections,” he affirmed.
In a direct reference to Chief Minister KCR, who had on the suspicion of the old secretariat building being inauspicious got it demolished to build a new one, Modi said it was “dangerous to have a person trusting more in superstitions and blind beliefs in power as they cannot do justice with a constricted point of view”. “I was once told in Gujarat not to visit a place as the CM’s chair will go away, but I still went there nevertheless because I have faith in knowledge and technology,” he declared, amid cheers.
“It is crystal clear there is going to be a change in the government here as the Telangana people have already made up their minds on this count. The change is imminent and the party is ready,” he said. His Government at the Centre in the last eight years has taken the slogan of ‘development for all’ irrespective of caste or creed seriously and implemented the welfare and development schemes.
“The poor can now live a life of dignity and dream of a better future as they are part of the development process as they are part of the banking system through the Jan-Dhan yojana, there are direct benefit transfers to the farmers, houses being built for the poor and so on”, he explained. Telangana’s poor sections too deserve to get the benefit of such schemes but the TRS government has been changing names to claim credit but it “cannot erase us from the hearts of the poor as we always strive to help such sections first,” he said.
Promising to develop Telangana into a ‘technical hub’ and in all other aspects, he observed that the dreams of having a separate state have not fructified due to the TRS family rule. “BJP’s fight is for the future of Telangana and for its self-respect,” he said and thanked the party cadre for coming and greeting him in large numbers despite the sweltering heat.
The country’s progress, he said, was possible only when people vote out corrupt family-ruled political parties. “A change in Telangana is certain. The BJP will form the government. The results of recent elections are indicative of that,” he said. After winning only one seat out of 119 it contested in the Telangana Assembly election of 2018, the BJP managed to win by-polls in Dubbaka and Huzurabad constituencies from the ruling TRS. The BJP also improved their numbers in the GHMC council in 2020 by winning 48 seats, compared to the 4 seats it had won in 2016.
Meanwhile, Telangana CM Rao left for Karnataka a few hours before the PM’s arrival and met the former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda in Bengaluru. KCR is trying to forge an alliance of like-minded non-NDA parties to take on the BJP. The TRS had also put up posters across Hyderabad posing questions to the Prime Minister about his failed promises.
The TRS hitting back said Modi “did not speak like the PM of the country, only the leader of the BJP.” On allegations of promoting dynastic politics, KCR’s party spokesperson Krishank Manne said, “PM only spoke about parivarwaad. If that is the case, then who is Jay Shah (Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s son) to lead cricket of India? They should expel Rajnath Singh and his son also if they do not believe in parivarwaad.” Jay Shah is the Secretary of India’s top cricket governing body Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
KCR, too, responded sharply to the PM’s remarks. Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, he dismissed the PM’s attack as “bhashan bazi (high rhetoric)” and pointed to the state of India’s economy. “The situation is deteriorating day by day, but bhashans (speeches) are happening daily. GDP is falling, and inflation is increasing…The country should change, and the country will,” he said while addressing the media after a meeting which is part of his nationwide tour to meet opposition leaders and consolidate an anti-BJP alternative.
Notably, Telangana Chief Minister’s son KT Rama Rao is a legislator from Sircilla and is the cabinet minister for IT, Municipal Administration and Urban Development. KCR’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha served as MP from Nizamabad and currently serving as a Member of the Legislative Council, Nizamabad since 2020. KCR’s nephew, Harish Rao, is an MLA for Siddipet and Telangana’s cabinet minister for finance.
KCR avoided meeting with the PM for the second time in the last four months as he flew to Bengaluru on Thursday to call on former PM HD Deve Gowda and his son HD Kumaraswamy of JD(S). The Bengaluru visit is a part of his nationwide tour to discuss the national agenda for the upcoming presidential elections and the need to put up a united fight against the BJP. In February, KCR had skipped meeting PM Modi at the airport when he had visited Hyderabad to unveil the statue of equality at Muchintal. Mr Rao had cited health reasons.
Rao after his meeting with Deve Gowda declared that there would soon be “change at the national level” and teased “sensational news” in a few months. “I would like to say that I met Deve Gowda and HD Kumaraswamy, we discussed everything. There will be a change at the national level and no one can stop it. India will change…India must change. We should make every effort to change the state of the country,” KCR said. “You will get sensational news after two-three months,” he added, not elaborating.