The people of Telangana wanted freedom, but it was exactly what was taken away from them after the state became a reality, he said.
File photos of Revanth Reddy and K Chandrashekar Rao. (Supplied)
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Friday, 9 February, made a strong attempt to delink the Telangana identity from the BRS.
He brought up several instances of how the BRS either humiliated or hurt the Telangana protagonists.
He said the Congress was trying to usher in a Telangana that these heroes had fought for, braving police bullets.
The chief minister had used Telangana sentiment in the recent elections, alleging that KCR had acted against the interests of the people and saying that the Congress was coming to their rescue.
Revanth Reddy used to say that the Congress delivered Telangana out of respect for people and KCR wrested it away to further his self-interests.
The chief minister, in his hour-long reply in the Assembly to the motion of thanks to the Governor for her address, painted the BRS as the villain of the Telangana movement and everything it stood for.
He recalled a decision taken at the recent Cabinet meeting: “We are changing the prefix for registration numbers of vehicles from TS to TG as the latter reflects the Telangana movement while the former made one think of the TRS.”
He said the design of Telangana Thalli was also being changed as the present one had features that reflected socio-economic oligarchy.
The new design being contemplated would capture the spirit of the Telangana women who fought for their rights, like Chakali Ilamma.
Similarly, the Cabinet had decided to use poet Ande Sri’s “Jaya Jayahe Telangana” as the state’s anthem to capture the quintessence of the Telangana movement, he said.
The chief minister also announced that very soon Group I examinations would be held and the upper age limit would be 46 years. The posts of 15,000 constables would be filled in about 15 days, he said.
Revanth took swipes at former chief minister and BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao, who was not present in the House, for his allegedly dictatorial grip on Telangana for the last 10 years.
The people of Telangana wanted freedom when the youth fought for a separate state, but ironically it was exactly what was taken away from them after Telangana became a reality.
“It appeared as though they were better off under the rule in united AP,” he said, adding that Pragati Bhavan — now named Praja Bhavan — had become an impregnable fortress and people were barred from getting anywhere close to it. “There was no one to turn to for redressal of grievances,” he said.
The chief minister began his reply by tracing the history of the Telangana movement and recalling how people valiantly fought for it.
He brought up the sacrifices that several youths had made. “Srikanthachari had paid for Telangana with his life. But his family was never taken care of,” he said.
Lacing his words in vinegar and sarcasm, the chief minister referred to KCR as an intellectual and a scholar who had read 80,000 books.
At one point, he said: “As he is absenting himself from attending the Assembly, the members could not have the fortune of benefiting from his erudition and scholarship.”
When he kept referring to KCR as one who had read 80,000 books, TRS member T Harish Rao asked him to cut down on his sarcasm and get down to business.
The chief minister also took a dig at Harish Rao, saying that the BRS leader had the money to take with him petrol in cans but would forget to carry a matchbox.
It was in reference to the defence that Harish Rao put up when his critics asked him why he did not carry matchbox with him when he wanted to immolate himself for Telangana at the height of the statehood movement.
A livid Harish Rao shot back at Revanth Reddy, asking him to realise that leaders like him were at the forefront of the Telangana movement.
Revanth Reddy was nowhere in the movement and it was difficult for him to know the kind of anxiety, pain, and emotion they were going through at that time, he said.
“It is no wonder that the chief minister would make fun of those who fought for Telangana,” he said.
The chief minister’s reply generated so much heat that there were instances when the BRS members kept raising slogans, particularly when he took swipes at KCR.
Revanth Reddy seemed to have touched a raw nerve when he said that the BRS members always tried to divert the attention of the people to the issue of the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) taking control of the projects on the Krishna river from the pink party’s role in the irregularities in the execution of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS).
The chief minister, during the course of his reply, blamed the BRS for the mess that the sharing of Krishna waters had become.
The BRS had a history of ganging up with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, he said, adding that it had let him design projects on the foreshore of Srisailam to pilfer 12.5 tmcft water every day.
If these projects were allowed to draw water, nothing would be left in the river except slush in just one month, he said.
Revanth recalled how KCR, on a visit to AP minister Roja’s residence, had eaten “ragi mudda” and “prawn soup” served to him by her and said that he would make Rayalaseema a ratanala seema (rough translation: an area of gemstones, the implication being it would become a rich area).
He also said that it was the BRS government that signed the deal for apportionment of the Krishna waters between AP and Telangana.
“You agreed for a 299-tmcft share in 811 tmcft of water meant for both the states when Telangana could insist 68 percent of the 811 tmcft since the catchment area of the Krishna river was that much in Telangana,” he said.
When Harish Rao was seeking clarifications on the chief minister’s address, Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the Telangana government had not forfeited its control of the projects on the Krishna river, and that he was ready for a separate debate on this issue.
Though Harish Rao read out from the minutes of the KRMB meeting held on 17 January in Delhi, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that Harish Rao could not convince him with some piece of paper that Telangana had given up its control on the projects.
Harish Rao then said that the irrigation minister knew that the state had committed a blunder by signing the minutes relinquishing its control of the projects, and had also realised its mistake, but was not coming forward to admit it.
“If the state government admitted its mistake, the BRS would have been ready to support it in its fight for the restoration of the control of the projects,” he said.
Meanwhile, Revanth Reddy also took potshots at the BRS members for crying hoarse every day that the Congress government had not yet credited Rythu Bharosa amounts into the farmers’ accounts. He said he did not understand why they were not patient enough to wait since the Congress had come to power barely two months ago.
On top of this, the history of the BRS government was not great when it came to crediting Rythu Bharosa amounts, he said. “In 2018-19, the BRS government took five months to credit Rythu Bandhu money. In 2019-20, it took nine months and in 2020-21, four months,” he said.
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