HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday announced that he will convene a meeting of all non-BJP parties in Hyderabad in the second week of December, wherein the saffron party would be called out to account for all the ills plaguing the nation.
Apparently with an intention to emerge as a formidable force that can challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the national level, Rao plans to invite leaders of national stature — Mamata Banerjee, HD Kumaraswamy, Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati and MK Stalin, apart from some of the Left parties.
The Chief Minister, ahead of the general elections in 2019, had toyed with the idea of forging a federal front with all non-BJP and non-Congress leaders. But this had fizzled out as the BJP grew stronger and romped home with a massive majority at the Centre.
Now, with the election to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) scheduled for December 1, Rao, at a joint meeting of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Parliamentary and Legislature parties at Telangana Bhavan here, targeted the BJP for failing to rise to the expectations of the people.
Interestingly, he came out with his narrative of the national alternative to the BJP after the saffron party, which was dismissed as one of no consequence, vanquished it in a byelection to Dubbaka in north Telangana where the pink party has a vice-like grip. The TRS chief said he will take the lead to launch the fight against the anti-people, especially the anti-farmer and anti-labour, policies of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre.
“The TRS is a formidable political force in the country and it is its responsibility to take the lead to fight against the policies of the BJP. I will bring all the non-BJP parties on one platform. I have already spoken to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Kerala CM P Vijayan, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, former CMs HD Kumaraswamy, Akhilesh Yadav, Sharad Pawar, Prakash Singh Badal and also DMK leader MK Stalin,” Rao said.
Attacking the BJP, the Telangana Chief Minister said: “The Narendra Modi government did nothing for the country in the last six years. The country has been pushed backwards due to the lopsided policies. It is the responsibility of all non-BJP parties to rise and end the inefficient rule of the BJP government.”
PSUs handed over to corporates, alleges KCR
Rao alleged that several Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) had been handed over to corporate companies through disinvestment process. “We will express our solidarity with the agitating PSU employees and fight against Modi’s disinvestment policies,” the TRS chief declared. He further said: “The TRS will educate the people of the country, along with other regional parties, and fight against the anti-people polices of the Narendra Modi government.”
The TRS supremo said Modi had done nothing for the development of farmers, Dalits, tribals and people of other backward classes. As he could not achieve anything, he has always taken recourse to campaigns such as Pakistan, Kashmir and Pulwama to derive political mileage during elections, Rao alleged.
The BJP would rake up emotive issues, divide the people on religious lines and disturb communal harmony, thus benefitting from all this in elections, he said. “The Modi government had claimed that it waged a war against the enemy across the border. But it failed to control China. BJP always depends on fake campaigns. It gave beautiful slogans such as ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’. But in reality, it did nothing for the people,” Rao alleged.
Lauds Nehru
Rao lauded the country’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. With a foresight, Nehru had started PSUs. But the BJP has been diluting and handing these over to the corporates. The disinvestment process was started during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime. There was a Minister in Vajpayee’s Cabinet for disinvestment, he recalled. The same policies were continued by the Manmohan Singh government.
“Where is the need to privatise the Railways which had severed the country even during the lockdown?” Rao wondered. “How can we trust Modi, who claimed that he had sold tea at a railway station, and is now privatising the same Railways?” Rao asked.
The TRS president also found fault with the Modi government for privatising LIC, NTPC, BHEL, defence, PBCL and others. Several countries are far ahead of India in terms of GDP growth, he said.