Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, his cabinet colleagues and ruling TRS leaders staged a ‘dharna’ here on Thursday in protest against the NDA government’s alleged unhelpful stance over paddy procurement in the state.
Rao, who made a blistering attack on BJP, charged the saffron party with indulging in ‘communal politics’ and provoking religious sentiments by taking the name of Pakistan every time elections were held.
The BJP-led NDA government has been ‘unhelpful’ to Telangana during the last about eight years and it handed over seven mandals of Telangana to Andhra Pradesh and did not deliver on assurances made to the state, he said.
In spite of all these, the TRS government showed patience as Telangana was a new state, but there is a limit, he said.
There has been no response from the Centre though his government had sought to know from Union Minister for Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal about the extent of paddy procurement in the state, he claimed.
”I am asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji with folded hands. I wrote a letter also yesterday. Fifty days ago, we humbly asked that minister (Piyush Goyal)… You tell us if you will not buy? We will tell our farmers to go for other crops… But, there has been no response,” he said.
Sensing that the Centre was not in favour of paddy procurement, the state government had asked the farmers to go for alternative crops in the summer season, but the state BJP leaders asked them to cultivate paddy.
The state BJP leaders indulged in politics without getting an approval from the Centre on paddy procurement issue, he alleged.
Noting that five lakh metric tons of paddy of last summer season is still lying with the state government, he said the rice would be dumped at the BJP office if it is not procured.
”BJP leaders might be thinking that TRS would be worried about the posts of Chief Minister and ministers. But it had given up key posts like Union Minister, MLA, MP, for the sake of Telangana,” Rao said. ”If it is necessary, if it becomes inevitable, definitely, Telangana Rashtra Samithi would take leadership for the sake of India’s farming community,” he said.
Rao asserted that the TRS would fight till the end over the NDA government’s ‘anti-people policies,’ anti-farmer laws.
The NDA government has kept pending many Telangana issues, including classification of SCs and increased quotas for STs, he alleged.
”All are observing. All have understood. Your surgical strikes, your drama at the borders, your hoodwinking, everything got exposed and has come out in the open,” he said.
Without addressing the crucial issues of water and others, BJP indulged in Hindu-Muslim communalism and provoking people’s sentiments by taking Pakistan’s name whenever elections are held, he alleged.
Observing that TRS would also fight for the country, he said India is not using more than 2 lakh mega watt electricity though 4 lakh mega watt is available.
The BJP-led government at the Centre would not respond when they are asked whether they are going to purchase paddy or not, he said. They do ”harakiri’ when asked about it.
”.. the agitation should spread across the country. This should reach every household in the country. Telangana needs to take leadership. We have to get ready for another fight,” he said.
Responding to BJP’s criticism of the party for holding dharnas on the paddy procurement issue, Rao said Modi, as Gujarat Chief Minister, held protests for 51 hours in 2006.
After the dharna, a TRS delegation, including agriculture minister S Niranjan Reddy submitted a memorandum to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan in Raj Bhavan over the issue.
The agitation by Rao and other TRS leaders came against the backdrop of a war of words between ruling TRS and BJP over paddy procurement and a clash between the activists of the two parties during state BJP president and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar’s visit to procurement centres this week. BJP MLA Eatala Rajender, who responded to the CM’s comments, said Rao repeatedly asked whether the Centre is purchasing paddy or not.
Rao had earlier said that Telangana is the only state to purchase entire paddy from farmers. He did not make any reference to the Centre and sought to claim credit, Rajender said.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
