Congress Condemns Mass Arrests To Foil Erravalli Rachabanda

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President & MP A Revanth Reddy strongly condemned the TRS government for "resorting" to mass arrests of Congress leaders and workers to foil the party's proposed "Rachabanda For Farmers" program at Erravalli village in the Gajwel constituency.

All senior leaders of the Congress were either taken into custody or placed into house arrest since the early hours of Monday.

Speaking to media persons at the Amberpet police station where he was taken after his arrest from his residence in Jubilee Hills this morning, Reddy said that the Congress was conducting the program to instill confidence among the paddy farmers across Telangana.

He said that many farmers had committed suicides or died due to heart attacks or other such reasons as they were upset over the non-procurement of their produce by the TRS and the BJP governments during the last three months.

Neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had taken any measures to restore confidence among the farmers, and instead the TRS and BJP had indulged in a dirty blame game to avoid any resolution of the problem, Reddy alleged.

Since the Congress was fighting to get justice for the farmers, KCR had foiled the proposed Rachabanda at Erravalli by ordering arrests of all important leaders, he claimed.

"KCR had earlier given a call for the cultivation of paddy on one crore acres of land. But for the Vanakalam season, the TRS government made no arrangements like gunny bags, transportation and stocking to procure the 60+ lakh MTs of paddy grown. Consequently, lakhs of paddy farmers were left in the lurch, with many of them eventually resorting to extreme steps like suicide," Reddy said.

"Further, KCR issued a dictate ordering a ban on the cultivation of paddy across Telangana in the Yasangi season. Surprisingly, KCR and his family members are cultivating paddy on their 150-acre farm in Erravalli. When the Congress exposed this and wanted to take a media team to Erravalli to verify the fact, KCR deployed the entire police force of the state to stop us from visiting Erravalli. Is Erravalli a restricted area? Is it located in Pakistan or China? Do we need to take a visa to go to Erravalli? Is there a hidden treasure in Erravalli which KCR fears will be stolen if people visit there to verify paddy cultivation?" Reddy asked.

He said that the Congress was conducting the Rachabanda programme to instill confidence among the farmers and stop them from committing suicides. He said that there was no law that prevented any farmer from cultivating the crop of their choice, and that it would be legally mandatory for the union and the state governments to procure all 23 crops covered with Minimum Support Prices.

Therefore, he said that the farmers should not worry about cultivating paddy in the Yasangi season. The Congress would fight for the farmers' rights to ensure that each and every grain they produced was purchased by the government.

The TPCC chief also alleged that Telangana BJP President Bandi Sanjay giving a call for a deeksha on the unemployment issue exactly on the day of the Congress' Rachabanda program was another example of the TRS-BJP nexus.

"PM Modi came to power in 2014 on the promise of giving two crore jobs every year. By now, at least 16 crore jobs should have been created, and Telangana's share would have been nearly 50 lakh jobs. Over 20 lakh qualified youth have registered themselves with the Telangana Public Service Commission, and lakhs of others are desperately waiting for employment. Instead of enacting dramas to help the TRS government divert attention from other issues, Sanjay should explain how many jobs the BJP government provided for Telangana's youth," Reddy said.

Reddy also ridiculed Minister K T Rama Rao's letter to BJP leader Bandi Sanjay on the unemployment issue, and said that it was another example of the nexus.

"Have you ever heard of a minister writing an open letter to the leader of an opposition party?" he asked, and claimed that Sanjay's deeksha, KTR's letter and the entire blame game between the TRS and the BJP were aimed at diverting the people's attention.

"They are literally behaving like the attention diversion gangs wherein two people get into a fake fight or heated argument and the other gang members pick the pockets of an innocent audience. The TRS and the BJP, through their blame game, are trying to create a false impression that the Congress does not exist in Telangana. But in reality, the Congress is the only party taking up the real issues of the common people while exposing the unholy nexus between the TRS and the BJP," he said.