Behind the News is your round-up of musings from the corridors of power. A few of the contractors alleged that middlemen were asking them to pay officials 20 percent of the value of the works as a bribe for clearance of their bills.
Published Mar 11, 2025 | 8:30 AM ⚊ Updated Mar 11, 2025 | 8:30 AM
QR code with Telangana CM Revanth Reddy's image.
Synopsis: The BRS came up with Revanth Reddy’s QR code after about 200 small-time civil contractors staged a protest and alleged that middlemen were asking them to pay officials 20 percent of the value of the works as a bribe for clearance of their bills.
The BRS in Telangana is using a weapon against the Congress which the latter used in 2023 to target former BJP chief minister Basavaraj Bommai’s government in Karnataka.
The BRS has come out with a PayCM QR code with an image of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy embedded in it. There is an appeal underneath: 20 percent commission accepted here.
The appeal is meant for the contractors who are said to be paying 20 percent of the value of the work they have done for the Congress government. BRS poster says they could effortlessly scan the code and make the payment for clearance of the bills stuck in the catacombs of the state government.
Not very long ago, on the eve of the Assembly elections in Karnataka in 2023, the Congress used this method to hit the BJP where it hurt most. The Congress had pasted posters with QR codes with Bommai’s image on walls across the state. The BJP foot soldiers had a tough time removing the posters, but by then, the posters had done a lot of damage.
Among several factors that led to the fall of the BJP government in Karnataka, corruption was one, and the Congress deftly used the method to connect with the people.
What better way is there to do it than using a QR code, which is familiar to everyone for making day-to-day payments, including those who live in habitations that are far from civilisation?
The BRS saw an opportunity to punch Revanth Reddy on his nose in a similar fashion. The party’s technical wing came up with Revanth Reddy’s QR code after about 200 small-time civil contractors staged a protest outside Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka’s chambers in the state Secretariat recently.
A few of the contractors alleged that middlemen were asking them to pay officials 20 percent of the value of the works as a bribe for clearance of their bills.
The news of the protest quickly spread like wildfire, with all media channels lapping it up. The contractors followed it up with a media conference where they narrated their plight.
They explained that they were leading a miserable life since the money was locked in the government and the burden of loans they had borrowed for completing the works was becoming more and more burdensome.
Ideally, the campaign should have been done by the BJP, in an act of rendering poetic justice against Congress. The saffron party could have converted the QR code into an ideal boomerang on the Congress.
However, with the BRS doing what the BJP should have done, the edge of the campaign has lost some of its sharpness. There were social media activists asking why the BRS was copying a scheme that the Congress had launched to deal a blow to the BJP.
The fact remains that it is a clever way of hitting at the Congress. After all, Congress is BRS’ arch-rival, as it had moved K Chandrashekar Rao’s cheese in the 2023 Assembly elections.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
