KCR gives sneak peek into national manifesto for farmers amid TRS-BJP spat

He elicited an affirmative reply from farmers after asking them whether he should begin his national political journey soon to save the nation from the brink of ruin. He called upon them to fight for the nation from Telangana.

Looking beyond the Vindhyas

KCR’s assertion that he was looking beyond the Vindhyas seemed like a psychological ploy to tell the BJP honchos that he was too big for them and that he was gunning for the Delhi throne, at a time when the BJP’s thinking is limited to making feeble attempts to oust him from power in the state.

Also, the chief minister seemed serious about continuing his political peregrinations all over the nation to mobilise support from farmers.

Though he did not say how he would do it — whether he would form a national party or forge regional alliances with non-BJP forces — he made it clear that he was hellbent on making an incursion into BJP strongholds in the country.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao inaugurated the Nizamabad district collectorate on Monday, 5 September, 2022. (Supplied)

KCR, to bolster his argument that the BJP had become anti-national with its lopsided economic policies and incendiary communal designs, hauled the saffron party over the coals for pitting one community against another and trying to emasculate the agriculture sector by making farming unviable.

He said that on one side the BJP was trying to fan the flames of communalism, and on the other side it was planning to allow corporates to step in and gobble up the lands of farmers by making agriculture prohibitively expensive.

“The first move that the Centre made was to try to install meters to agriculture pump sets, and discontinue welfare schemes arguing that they were freebies that would lead to the impoverishment of the economy,” said KCR.

‘BJP handing farming over to corporates’

“This is all being done as part of a grand conspiracy. The prime minister wants the corporates to take over the lands from farmers, begin contract farming, and hire farmers who sold their lands as coolies in their own lands,” he added.

He said the people should get ready to dethrone the BJP government at the Centre.

Rao also said that of the 83 crore acres of land in the country, 42 crore was cultivable. “Though we have great rivers, no new projects have been built under the BJP’s rule. The Centre is keen on selling everything instead of constructing any project that would benefit people,” he said.

The TRS chief said that a simple calculation would bare the BJP’s nefarious designs for the farmers.

‘Move to put meters on farm wells’

Even though the entire power bill for the farm sector does not go beyond ₹1.46 lakh crore, the Central government was planning to set up meters to farm wells, while at the same time waiving ₹12 lakh crore of loans availed by corporates from nationalised banks, said KCR, adding that this was why the anti-farmer and communal party should be jettisoned.

Scything through the BJP’s game plan of gobbling states ruled by the Opposition, the Telangana chief minister said that the saffron party is always busy dreaming up one conspiracy or the other.

“The BJP is purchasing MLAs as though they are cattle in a shandy and is bringing down governments. This is a very ominous trend, and all secular and democratic forces should resist it fiercely,” he said.