KCR, while trying to nail the Congress, wanted the Muslims to remember who was at the helm at the Centre when the masjid was razed.
Published Nov 16, 2023 | 8:15 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 16, 2023 | 8:27 PM
Telangana Chief Minister KCR and Finance Minister Harish Rao at the Siddipet rally. (X)
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is not letting sleeping dogs lie. Without any warning, he brought up the issue of the Babri Masjid demolition of 1992 at an election rally in Nizamabad on Wednesday, 15 November.
For Generation Z, it is all but a speck in history. For the older folks, images of kar sevaks pulling down the historical masjid and the subsequent violence three decades ago was a nightmare they had pushed into the dark recesses of their minds.
KCR, while trying to nail the Congress on its secularism credentials, wanted the Muslims to remember who was at the helm at the Centre when the mosque was razed.
Trying to take the wind out of Congress’ “Mohabbat ki dukan” slogan, KCR hit out at the party by saying it should practise what it preached.
He went for the Congress’ jugular for its assertion that it would close down the dukan of hate.
“The Congress says we had opened the dukan of hate, but one should remember under whose supervision the demolition of the masjid took place,” he said referring to the rule of the then prime minister and late Congress leader PV Narasimha Rao.
“We treat all religions and communities equally, unlike the Congress, which always treated Muslims as its vote bank,” he said.
Interestingly, it was the same Chandrashekar Rao who eulogised Narasimha Rao not very long ago. He called him the son of Telangana who brought name and fame to the country.
KCR organised Rao’s centenary celebrations at a time when even the Congress had chosen to him. He spoke more like a scholar than a politician on the inaugural day of the centenary celebrations on 28 June, 2020, even as Covid-19 was on the rampage.
He had called Narasimha Rao Telangana’s muddu bidda (beloved child) and demanded that the Bharat Ratna be conferred on him posthumously.
The same day next year, he unveiled a 25-foot bronze statue of the former prime minister at PV Narasimha Rao Marg — which used to be known as Necklace Road — in Hyderabad in the presence of state Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, marking the conclusion of the birth centenary celebrations.
KCR called Narasimha Rao a reformist and said if the country could extricate itself from the mess it got into, it was because of his economic reforms.
The chief minister, during the centenary celebrations year, sent Narasimha Rao’s daughter Vani Devi to the Legislative Council as a mark of respect for her father.
The chief minister, who adored Narasimha Rao to the extent that even the Congress had turned green with envy for losing the initiative, suddenly turned inimical to him, asking the Muslims to be wary of the designs of the Congress.
He said the party’s real character could be easily assessed if one looked at the dispensation under which the Babri Masjid was demolished.
Given the consummate politician that is KCR, it is not very difficult to find the reason for his latest political demarche.
There is a growing feeling that KCR has sensed that the Muslim minorities are slipping from his control.
As they seem to be moving closer to the Congress, which has emerged as an alternative to the BRS in Telangana, the only way to turn them against the grand old party was by taking them into the past in a time machine and playing on their raw emotions.
Retired University of Hyderabad (UoH) professor G Haragopal said he found it strange that KCR should put the entire blame for the destruction of Babri Masjid only on PV Narasimha Rao and not say a word against the BJP, which actually pulled down the place of worship.
“It is not appropriate to put the entire blame on PV and leave out the BJP. PV may have had a soft corner for the BJP, but how about the BJP, which is actually responsible for the destruction of the mosque?” he asked.
He said he believed that KCR had realised that the Congress was the main contender for power in the state, and therefore he was trying to paint the Congress as a communal party, in the hope that Muslims would treat the BRS as a secular party and vote for it and him.
Haragopal also said that election lectures are devoid of any credibility and one should stop taking them seriously. “A large part of electoral propaganda is highly distorted, deviated, and dishonest,” he told South First.
Another reason why KCR was directly trying to tap into the Muslim minority voters was that even the AIMIM might not be able to influence them as much as it used to because of the political narrative that has come to stay — that there is an unwritten understanding between the BRS and the BJP.
As the Congress is seen as the only party with pure anti-BJP credentials, the Muslims seem to be moving towards the grand old party.
Muslims, who constitute 15 percent of the population of Telangana, play a crucial role in deciding the fate of candidates in several constituencies.
There are about 50 Assembly constituencies in the state where Muslims can decide the fate of the contestants in the fray.
In the Old City of Hyderabad, the population of Muslims is between 55 percent and 80 percent in seven segments where the AIMIM has sway.
According to IV Murali Krishna Sarma, a researcher in the media and research organisation People’s Pulse, Muslims are more concerned about stopping the march of the BJP in the state than in development and the resolution of local issues.
Sarma said he believed that it was a delusion that Muslims would be carried away by what AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said.
There is no guarantee that the Muslims would vote for the BRS en masse just because Asaduddin Owaisi is on friendly terms with KCR, he said.
Striking the iron while it is still hot, the Congress has been carrying out a campaign that the BRS and the AIMIM are the B-Team of the BJP, which seemed to have cut some ice with Muslims.
In the final analysis, Muslims are determined to see that the BJP is defeated and would vote for the party that can do it, whether it is the BRS or the Congress.
Murali Krishna told South First that an interesting development he noticed was that the Muslim voters had more or less come to a decision to support the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections, regardless of whom they would vote for in the Assembly elections in Telangana.
