ED notices to MLC Kavitha: BJP pursing vendetta politics, KTR vows to expose Modi-Adani nexus

HYDERABAD: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Working President Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao (KTR) on Thursday slammed Narendra Modi Government’s hypocrisy in using central investigating agencies for political vendetta against rivals while remaining deliberately blind to the follies of his benamis like Gautham Adani.

Addressing media at the BRS Bhavan in Hyderabad on Thursday, he reacted to the summons of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) to his sister and MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha in Delhi liquor policy case.

He said that his party and its MLC would fight the injustice politically and expose Narendra Modi Government’s Adani hypocrisy and their ‘dark friendship’ (nexus) in people’s court. The Telangana Minister ridiculed Narendra Modi, saying that the Prime Minister refers to India as ‘mother of democracy’ but in reality, he is the ‘grandfather of hypocrisy’.

KTR said that the Modi government at the Centre was unleashing the ED, CBI and IT to intimidate political rivals and create a reign of terror all the while pretending to be the ‘paragon of virtue’. “‘Either jumla or humla’ is the slogan of Narendra Modi. They somehow want to enact drama or create havoc. Raids were conducted on several of our ministers, MLAs, MPs and MLCs including Gangula Kamalakar, Mallareddy, Talasani Srinivas Yadav, Nama Nageswara Rao, Vaddiraju Ravichandra, Manchireddy Kishan Reddy and Pilot Rohit Reddy. Unable to deter our leader K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), who is on a national mission now, they have now issued notice to our MLC Kavitha. They were not ED summons but Modi summons,” he commented.

The BRS Working President took the case of Gautham Adani, whom he called the benami of Narendra Modi, and the BJP’s government in Karnataka, which he claimed, was rated the most corrupt in India. He wondered why no cases were registered and action initiated in Karnataka and against Adani group, whose public money to the tune of Rs 13 lakh crores was lost in no time after the Hindenburg research report.

“The Narendra Modi Government has become synonymous to the most unscrupulous governance in India’s history. Who is Gautham Adani? Even novices in politics will tell you that he is the benami of Narendra Modi. The Prime Minister remains tightlipped even after a colossal loss of public money from the Adani Group following the Hindenburg Research whistleblowing report. Precious investments of LIC too vanished into thin air and yet he (Modi) does not break his silence. On the other hand, the central agencies are being indiscriminately used against opposition political parties. The ED is a ‘keelubomma’ (toy) and the CBI, a ‘tholubomma’ (puppet) at the hands of the Centre,” KTR alleged.

KTR also claimed that the Adani Group was awarded six airports in gross violation of rules which did not permit more than two to any entity. He also cited the statement of former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapakse who, according to KTR, lamented that his government was pressurised by the Modi regime to hand over one of their ports to the Adanis.

“It was a G2G, not Government to Government. It is Gautham to Gotabaya, facilitated by Modi. Anyone who questions this, will never get answers and instead will be targetted with the Central investigation agencies,” he said.

The BRS Working President also ridiculed the BJP-led NDA of pursuing the ‘Washing Powder Nirma’ policy of hounding rivals with the Central agencies and then giving them a shield of immunity as soon as they join the BJP. “The BJP wants the country to believe that the leaders charged with corruption and irregularities will be cleansed of their sins as soon as they join its fold. Take the case of YS (Sujana) Chowdary, a former TDP Rajya Sabha MP, who was accused of defrauding banks to the tune of Rs 6,000 crores by creating 120 shell companies. The ED itself stated on its official Twitter handle in November 2018. And see, what happened ever since Sujana Chowdary joined the BJP. There is hardly any news on these serious charges since then,” KTR said.

In an incisive observation, the Telangana Minister said that 95 percent of the raids carried out by the Central investigation agencies were only targetted against opposition political parties. Of the 5,422 cases registered since 2014, only 23 led to convictions. This is clear proof of how the Narendra Modi-led NDA government is using the agencies as a mechanism to terrorise other political parties and eradicate democracy from the country,” he commented.