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KCR dares PM to go for early LS polls
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi president, however, said he would not make any attempts to pull down the Modi government from power at the Centre
Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Sunday declared that he will dissolve the state legislative assembly and go for early elections in the state, provided the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), too, goes in for elections to the Lok Sabha.
Speaking to reporters at his camp office Pragati Bhavan, KCR, as the chief minister is known, challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to dissolve Lok Sabha and go for early elections.
“Let him fix the date for the conduct of early elections any time. I, too, shall dissolve the state assembly and go for simultaneous elections. Does the BJP have the guts to do that? Are the BJP and Congress ready for early elections?” he asked.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi president, however, said he would not make any attempts to pull down the Modi government from power at the Centre, unlike the BJP which was dethroning the democratically-elected governments using manipulative and anti-democratic tactics.
KCR took strong exception to the BJP leaders’ statements that they would pull down the Telangana and Tamil Nadu governments by grooming “Eknath Shinde-type leaders” in these states.
“This is nothing but sheer arrogance, and it shows power has gone to their heads. Do they think manufacturing Eknath Shindes in the opposition-ruled states is a great achievement? Is it democracy or despotism?” he asked.
He said the TRS had won the elections with three-fourths majority in the last assembly elections. “Out of 119 members in the state assembly, the TRS and its friendly party AIMIM together have 110 seats. Can the BJP dare groom Shindes here to pull down my government? Let them try and see how the people will react,” KCR said.
The chief minister said he would agree with Modi that there was a need for a “double engine sarkar” in the state and the Centre. “But the engine should be that of a non-BJP party. The BJP’s engine is running out of steam. We need a more powerful engine at the Centre,” he said.
He said the Telangana’s per capita income was ₹278,838, while that of India was only ₹149,848. Even in a big state like Uttar Pradesh, the per capita income was only ₹71,000. The GSDP growth rate of Telangana is 128.3 per cent, while the overall GDP growth in the country was only 89.6 per cent in the last eight years.
“So, if the power of Telangana’s growth engine is 100 HP (horsepower), the power of the BJP government at the Centre is only 50 HP and that of UP is 25 HP. Which engine is more powerful? Telangana or the BJP? So, which engine should the people change?” he asked.
KCR said Modi had no answers to any of the questions he had posed on the day when the BJP had conducted its national executive committee meeting in Hyderabad. “The reason is simple: the BJP had nothing to claim in the last eight years. It has taken the country backward by several decades. There has been rampant corruption, unemployment, and crisis in agriculture,” he alleged.
Displaying a video clip of Modi, when he was Gujarat chief minister, making a hue and cry over the fall in rupee value, KCR said India was now witnessing unprecedented fall in the rupee value under the Modi government. “This has happened only due to the inefficient, inept and inactive administration of Modi,” he said.
He also accused the BJP of damaging the reputation of India across the world by making controversial statements against other religions. “When the Supreme Court found fault with (suspended) BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma for making blasphemous remarks, the pro-BJP groups even attacked the judges. Is it a democratic country? It appears there is an undeclared emergency in the country,” he asked.
The chief minister also criticised the central government’s Agnipath scheme of recruiting army personnel for a short period. “It is a mindless decision and nobody, who has love for the county will take such a decision. According to military experts, it requires six to seven years for a solider to be completely trained to face war. How can the Centre expect a soldier to serve for three to four years to fight? How can a soldier get motivated to fight, if he has the insecurity of losing a job in a short period?” he asked.
Stating that one should not experiment with the army, KCR said more than Pakistan, the Indian army would have to be wary of Chinese aggression. “Indo-China border is not a laboratory to experiment with these short-term soldiers,” he said.
Telangana BJP official spokesperson K Krishna Sagar Rao said the chief minister had gone overboard in attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi purely for political reasons.
He said the BJP, as the opposition party in the state, had posed many questions to KCR many times and received zero response. “Why should KCR be shocked, if PM returns the favour? If KCR’s questions were sincere and not politically driven, Modi would have certainly responded. In fact, Modi had answered more questions than what KCR had asked from the parliament in last eight years,” he said.
He sought to know why the state’s finances were in a disarray if KCR was a great administrator and why a revenue surplus state flipped into a revenue deficit state under his leadership.
“How’s it democratic and ethical for you to bait the people’s representatives all the way from corporator level to MLAs and MPs from other parties? Why’s the duality in democratic ethics when you blame BJP?” he asked.
