On Telangana visit, PM Modi renews attacks on ‘corrupt’, ‘family-centric’ TRS

“The darkest hour is coming to an end. Very soon, there will be light. I see the signs of the lotus blooming in Telangana,” he said, referring to the spirited performance of the BJP in the recent by-election to the Munugode Assembly seat.

The prime minister urged the party workers to realise that corruption and family rule were the two chief enemies of development and progress.

“That is why the BJP is going on a crusade against both the systems,” he said, and expressed confidence that the BJP would come to power in the state,” he said.

PM Modi raises KCR’s superstitions

Even before the prime minister’s arrival, the bitter animosity between the BJP and the TRS was palpable, with Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao choosing not to meet him, welcome him, or even share the dais with him for the sixth time in a row in Telangana since 2020.

Later, when Modi began scything through the TRS government, it became clear that the relations between the two parties were set to slide further.

Modi, in an oblique swipe at the chief minister, said he was superstitious, and claimed the TRS chief goes by blind beliefs even when deciding whether he has to go to the secretariat or constituting the Cabinet, or even when he has to include someone in the Cabinet or exclude someone from it.

“It is unthinkable that superstitions like this should prevail on the rulers in a modern city like Hyderabad,” he said, expressing confidence that before long the BJP would come to power in Telangana and drive away the superstitious beliefs that had become the hallmark of the state government.

BJP government in Telangana soon, he says

The prime minister said that the first signs of the lotus blooming became noticeable when the entire state machinery had to be deployed for winning one Assembly seat.

“The credit for this goes to the BJP workers,” he said while taking potshots at the Communist parties for joining hands with the ruling party.

“The Communist parties are by nature anti-development. Now they are with the ruling party in the state,” he said, and warning that there was no question of sparing anyone who looted people.

Modi also said that the BJP always considered public life as the means to serve people. “But here, some people use it to abuse me no end every day,” he said.

“In these eight years, as I worked for the development of the country, some people have been making scurrilous comments about me. Every day, they search for words to abuse me, to the extent that no more words of abuse are left in the dictionary,” he claimed.

“I have been at the receiving end of 2-3 kg of abuse and invectives every day. But I do not care and, in fact, these expletives and profanities have turned into strength, propelling me to serve the nation more,” he said, advising the party workers not to be upset if someone heaped invectives on them, but instead try to see the fun side of it.

He however made it clear that he would not take it sportingly if “they” abused the people. “Let them heap abuses on me. Let them be nasty and bad mouth me or you. But if they treat the people the same way, I would not tolerate it,” he said, asserting that if some people were targeting him, it was because he did not tolerate corruption.

The prime minister also said he could rely on the people of Telangana who always supported the BJP whenever it was in a crisis.

“In 1984, there were only two [BJP politicians] in the Lok Sabha. Of the two, Janga Reddy was elected from Hanamkonda in Telangana,” he said, recalling that since then, it had been a long journey, and now the BJP has more than 300 members in the Lower House of Parliament.