Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi led the way for a war of words between the Congress and TRS leaders on the ongoing paddy procurement issue after posting a tweet in Telugu slamming both the TRS and BJP governments for politicising the issue.
KCR surrendered: Revanth
The tweet prompted TRS MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha to join asking him to support the TRS demand for a ‘one nation one procurement’ policy and this was countered by Telangana Congress chief and MP Revanth Reddy, who accused Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao of surrendering to the BJP government by signing on a letter that Telangana will not supply parboiled rice to the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
Mr. Gandhi in his tweet posted in Telugu slammed the BJP and TRS governments saying that they were running away from their moral responsibility in procuring paddy from Telangana farmers and indulging in politics over it.
“Buy every grain of paddy produced in Telangana and stop the anti-farmer policies,” he demanded and further said that the Congress will fight on behalf of the farmers until the last grain was procured.
Responding to his tweet, Finance Minister Harish Rao and Ms. Kavitha asked Mr. Gandhi to support the TRS on the ‘one nation one procurement’ policy for which the party MPs were fighting in Parliament. Ms. Kavitha asked him to join the protests of TRS MPs rather than just extending symbolic solidarity. “Our MPs are protesting in the Well of the House every day against the discriminative procurement policy of the Centre that procures total paddy in Punjab and Haryana but not in Telangana,” she said.
Harish Rao joins
Mr. Harish Rao too joined the Twitter war demanding Mr. Gandhi to announce the party stand on the ‘one nation one procurement’ policy rather than politicising the issue. He advised Mr. Gandhi not to ruin his image in Telangana nor his party’s.
However, Mr. Revanth Reddy responded to the tweets of Ms. Kavitha and Mr. Rao asking them to introspect as to who was responsible for the current crisis.
Posting a letter written to the FCI in October 2021 by the State government that Telangana would not supply parboiled rice to the FCI, Mr. Reddy said that the CM had surrendered Telangana farmers’ future to the Centre with his commitment in the letter.
He also alleged that TRS MPs were not fighting in Parliament but relaxing in its Central Hall. “While TRS is busy in photo shoots, Congress will take up the real fight on behalf of the farmers,” he said.
