KCR Lambasts Congress For "Cheap & Dirty Politics"

Flush from the overwhelming victory for the TRS-sponsored TBGKS in the Singareni Collieries employee union elections, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao launched a scathing diatribe against the Opposition parties in the state, especially the Congress leaders, for "playing cheap politics on every issue and creating hurdles for the TRS government in its efforts to develop the state".

Addressing the media at Pragathi Bhavan, the CM went hammer and tongs at the opposition leaders for launching "baseless and ill-conceived charges" against the TRS government.

It was the Congress which ruined the development of Telangana by doing nothing when it was in power, he alleged. He said that while Nehru who saw to it that Telangana was merged into the Andhra region, it was Sonia Gandhi who was responsible for hundreds of agitators being gunned down for spearheading a movement for a separate Telangana state. And not a single Congress minister had resigned for the cause of a separate state, he pointed out.

KCR further said that it was during the Congress regime that numerous farmers and handloom weavers had committed suicide in Telangana. Soon after TRS came to power in the new state, however, steps were taken to protect the interests of the handloom weavers by creating a corpus of Rs. 50 crores. That was just an example, and the TRS government had in fact taken up numerous welfare measures for the upliftment of all sections of the people like the SCs, STs, BCs, minorities and women, he claimed.

After the TRS assumed power in the new state, Telangana was also being administered peacefully, KCR said. There were no law and order issues now, and there were no fake encounters like in the past. The state was free of any communal disturbances, and all sections of people are happy including industrialists. Earlier, businessmen suffered a lot as palms needed to be greased for the grant of licenses, but now it had all changed and more and more industrialists were showing keen interest and coming forward to invest in the state, he said.

And unable to bear this excellent governance of the state, the opposition parties were playing cheap politics on every issue, KCR alleged. They were especially targeting irrigation projects by moving the courts against them, he claimed. Where was the need for bringing in a stay order against the Kaleshwaram project, he sought to know. The Congress should apologise to the people for getting the works of Kaleshwaram stalled, he said. He also lashed out some "chillar gangs" working overtime by indulging in false propaganda against the TRS government in the social media.

The TRS boss specifically lashed out at Telangana Congress chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy and TJAC chairman M Kodandaram for their remarks against his government and him. He refuted Reddy's comments that he was offering "Dorala Palana" as meaningless, and warned of cases against Reddy and other opposition leaders for making derogatory remarks against his government and him. There was no dora in the state apart from Reddy, he said, adding that he (KCR) belonged to a minority community whose population was just 1.1%.

KCR was emphatic that Kodandaram was spewing venom on the government at the behest of the Congress leaders. He claimed that Kodandaram had made secret parleys with AICC chief Sonia Gandhi and General Secretary Digvijaya Singh in Delhi against his government.

"I formed the JAC to unite all parties for statehood and anointed him as its head, and Kodandaram now tries to showcase himself as a Gandhi," he said. He flayed Kodandaram for launching a martyrs tour which he said was just a useless political tour, and said that the TJAC chief, who was not even a sarpanch, did not get support of even 500 people in his public meetings.

He also sought to know from Kodandaram why he felt Singareni would be destroyed if the TBGKS won the elections. "We will keep all our promises, including interest-free loans of Rs 6 lakhs for Singareni workers, and jobs for dependant on compassionate grounds," he said.

Referring to the Opposition parties criticising his party of not fulfilling its election promise of providing one lakh jobs in the state, the CM said, "Yes, I had promised one lakh jobs. Instead we are now striving to ensure that 1.12 lakh jobs are provided, and all steps are underway in this regard."

KCR also took a dig at the BJP for claiming to be the only alterantive party to the TRS in Telangana. "The BJP could manage to get only 240 votes in the Singareni elections. Is this party considering itself an alternative to the TRS in the state? It's a joke," he quipped.

Despite all the criticism and the unending efforts of the opposition to undermine its efforts, the TRS government would not deviate from its commitment and policies for the overall development of the state and welfare of all sections of the people, KCR said. And while he would welcome any constructive criticism intended for the welfare of the state and the well-being of the people, he said that "dirty and cheap" politics would not be tolerated at any cost.