Revanth wants to take back IKEA land; Blabber to embarrass Congress

HYDERABAD: Is Revanth Reddy shooting in his own feet? Or, obliquely, the feet of the Congress party in Telangana?

In a shocking statement that could have far-reaching consequences impacting the flow of foreign direct investments (FDI) into the country, Congress MP from Telangana and TPCC president A Revanth Reddy has proposed to take back the lands on which Swedish furniture mall IKEA has built its first-ever facility in India; and build houses for the poor on the prime land.

Is he pronouncing the policy of the Congress party?

In fact, IKEA had bought 13 acres in Knowledge City at Rayadurgam in Hyderabad, each acre at Rs. 19.21 crore, in 2015. He said that the Congress party, if elected to power, would take back this land. While he said the land would cost Rs. 50 crore an acre, the surmise for assessing the price is apparently the current value of the land.

Revanth Reddy said at a dharna in the city on Wednesday that the Congress would scrap the Dharani portal created by the Telangana State Government. He criticised the taking of lands for development and irrigation projects by the government as if no previous government had ever taken lands for such projects. In saying so, he exposed his opposition to any development.

While Hyderabad has been the magnet for investment by IT companies for the last over a quarter of a century, and the activity got accelerated in the TRS regime. Revanth Reddy, however, said the KCR Regime was indiscriminately doling out largesse in the form of huge land parcels to IT companies and that he did not know to whom the IT companies were giving jobs. The IT employment has soared to over 7.70 lakh and the exports were pegged at Rs.1.83 lakh crore in Telangana, according to the latest statistics released by the State Government.

Revanth Reddy apparently forgot the fact that it was the Congress, under P V Narasimha Rao, that launched the economic liberalisation in India and opened the doors to thousands of foreign companies to set up shop and create employment avenues to the people.

The TPCC chief has always been in the eye of the storm with his controversial words and deeds. He was caught on camera paying a bribe amount of Rs. 50 lakh currency to a legislator to vote in favor of a Telugu Desam Party contestant for the Telangana Legislative Council. Revanth Reddy was in the TDP at that time, before switching sides to the Congress party.

His tongue-lashing on Congress MP Shashi Tharoor – Revanth called him a "donkey" – drew an all-round criticism from within the party and he had to eat his own words later. When former Congress president Rahul Gandhi went for a private function at a pub in Nepal recently, Revanth Reddy had said that the one who was accompanying Gandhi was a Chinese Ambassador, without ascertaining facts. Even this remark made him eat crow.

Revanth, wittingly or unwittingly, embarrasses the Congress leadership at the drop of the hat, forcing the leadership to take corrective measures and retract his blabber. If the president of the main opposition party in the State talks like a loose cannon, what would that party hold for the State is anybody's guess.