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Congress will restore democratic atmosphere in Telangana, says Revanth Reddy
There would not have been so many suicides of farmers had the BRS government implemented the crop insurance scheme, Reddy said
Hyderabad: Stating that the people of Telangana have given a clear verdict against the dictatorial family rule of Bharat Rashtra Samithi in the just- concluded assembly elections, chief minister A Revanth Reddy on Saturday said the new Congress government will restore the democratic atmosphere and let people freely express their views.
“The people have broken the barriers of Pragati Bhavan, a fortress of former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. During the KCR regime, the common man had no entry into Pragati Bhavan. Even popular balladeer Gaddar had to wait for hours to enter the premises,” Reddy said in his hour-long speech in the assembly, replying to the discussion on the motion of thanks to governor Tamilisai Soundararajan’s address.
As soon as the Congress came to power, it had removed all barricades and allowed the people in, he said. “If you see the surge of crowds at the Praja Bhavan to present their grievances to the government, one can understand how much they had suffered in the last 10 years,” the chief minister said.
Reacting to BRS working president and former minister K T Rama Rao’s comments that the governor’s speech was full of lies and Telangana had emerged as No. 1 state in the country in several fields, Reddy said it was unfortunate that the BRS had not learnt a lesson despite the people giving a clear verdict against the family rule of KCR.
Reddy described KT Rama Rao as an NRI leader, who had entered politics under the “management quota.” He has no knowledge about the values of democracy, the chief minister said. “If he continues to brag that only the KCR family can save the state, he is disrespecting the people’s verdict,” Reddy said. “That is why they have shown the family its place.”
KTR took strong exception to Reddy’s comment. “In fact, you have got the chief minister’s post through management quota by managing Delhi leaders. We give our full support to the good policies of the Congress government, but we would definitely fight for the cause of people,” he said.
Reddy said his government would try to undo the undemocratic and authoritarian policies of the BRS administration in the past one decade. “You have ruled for 10 years, and we will be here for another 10 years. You are going to see how we shall implement our election promise of six guarantees to people,” the chief minister said.
He promised to bring in a democratic atmosphere in Telangana where basic rights like holding protests were denied. “We will give freedom to people to protest and freely express their views. We will implement social justice and do justice to all those who fought for Telangana’s statehood,” Reddy said.
Quoting from National Crime Records Bureau data, the chief minister said more than 8,000 farmers had committed suicide in the past 10 years. “Yet, the previous BRS government claimed that it was farmer friendly. In terms of per capita income of the farmers, Telangana is in 25th position,” he said.
There would not have been so many suicides of farmers had the BRS government implemented the crop insurance scheme, Reddy said. “It only tried to appease farmers by providing ₹5 lakh under Rythu Bima to the families of farmers who had committed suicide,” he criticised.
The chief minister also accused the previous BRS government of encouraging the sand mafia, promoting drug culture in the society, harassing Dalits and betraying the unemployed youth by allowing leakage of question papers of recruitment tests. “The BRS should first apologise to the people for all its misdeeds,” he said.
KTR sought to launch a counter attack. “I felt ashamed of being a member of this house after listening to the speech of the governor. It was like a fox taking a vow not to deceive anybody and a tiger promising not to eat meat hereafter. The Congress had never kept its promises in the past nor can it do in the coming days,” he said.
Stating that Telangana had seen all-round progress in the past 10 years, the BRS leader said, “History cannot be erased just because somebody will cover KCR’s name plate at Pragati Bhavan with mud.”
