Telangana BJP president and Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy on Sunday announced that the party will stage a protest at the party office here on Monday to highlight farmers’ grievances owing to a dearth of water and forgotten promises of loan waiver and enhanced financial aid.
After giving a glimpse of the party manifesto released in New Delhi, Mr. Kishan also offered to participate in a public debate on the performance of the BJP-led government and Congress government at the Centre.
At a presser, he alleged that Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, when he was in the Opposition, encouraged farmers to take new loans without paying up the old ones with the assurance of loan waiver.
Mr. Kishan asserted that neither the Congress nor the BRS has any right to criticise the Modi government or the party manifesto because of their respective poor track record of keeping their promises.
“Congress leader Rahul Gandhi or Mr. Revanth Reddy have no moral standing to talk about the Centre because they should first explain why their party has been unable to implement the promised guarantees within 100 days of coming to power. The free power scheme, too, has failed while there is no word in hike in pensions,” Mr. Kishan said.
Similarly, he slammed former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for his comments on the Modi government and questioned why the latter could not take up free fertiliser supply, provide irrigation water to one lakh acres, give free land to Dalits, implement KG-to-PG scheme and open the Nizam sugar factory when in power. “How many times had he offered to rub his nose on the ground if the promises are not implemented by his government?” the BJP leader asked.
Lie detector test
Rajya Sabha MP K. Laxman said the Centre is ready to conduct “lie detector” or “DNA tests” in connection with the illegal phone tapping by the former BRS government and dared Mr. Revanth and former BRS Minister K.T. Rama Rao to come forward if they are really serious about unearthing the criminal conspiracy behind the act.
In a statement to the media, he accused the Congress government and the BRS of making charges and counter-charges at each other like a “TV serial” without arresting the perpetrators of the crime. He said Mr. Revanth had not yet responded to KTR’s offer to undergo any test on the phone tapping.
This kind of shadow boxing between both the parties only indicated that the effort is to divert the people’s attention from the growing popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi but it will not cut much ice with the public, he observed.
Will Rahul Gandhi become PM?
In an election campaign meeting, former Minister and Malkajgiri constituency candidate Eatala Rajender wondered whether Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will become the Prime Minister if the Congress wins a majority of MP seats in Telangana. He asserted that there is no match for Mr. Modi in the country.
In any democracy, the Opposition is as important as the ruling party but the regime of former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao tried to crush the democratic forces, unions and others as the power got centralised within the family. He advised Mr. Revanth not to follow suit.
