KTR hints at revolt against Modi regime under KCR's leadership

NEW DELHI: "The revolt and defiance may stem from Telangana, and maybe in the form of KCR and enlighten and awaken the entire nation. Who knows?" said working president of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) K T Rama Rao. He has categorically stated that the TRS is not part of any alliance of opposition parties and it cannot be treated as a partner with them just because they supported a common candidate.

"We as a party, the TRS, has decided to support the candidature of Yashwant Sinha. We will support him and we will vote for him," said KTR.

Addressing the media after attending the nomination-filing programme of Yashwant Sinha, the Presidential nominee on behalf of the Opposition parties, here on Monday, KTR said that "Somewhere someday, a voice of dissent will rise if Modi's own constitution, superseding the Constitution authored by B R Ambedkar, is being implemented."

"We invited Yashwant Sinha to visit Hyderabad. We will organise the meeting of his voters.

KTR calls BJP politically bankrupt

KTR described the BJP's campaign against KCR by putting up his photograph in their party office as political bankruptcy. He went hammer and tongs on the BJP for their "shamelessness and political shallowness."

"We can do worse than that. We can put Modi's picture on donkeys and parade them in streets. But, that is not our culture." KTR pooh-poohed Modi's publicity-craze and said that he advertised even the Centre's act of giving loans to street vendors.

To a query on why the TRS was opposed to the candidacy of Draupadi Murmu, who hailed from an ST community, he referred to the selection of President Ramnath Kovind, who hailed from Dalit communities and asked if the lives of all Dalits in India had changed in the last five years just because of that decision.

"Stop this tokenism. If you are really committed to the uplift of the Dalits, tell us what have you done." He claimed credit for introducing 'Dalit Bandhu' by the TRS Government and asked if they could say one scheme the BJP had introduced for the benefit of the Dalits.

He pointed out that the BJP was constantly provoking religious sentiments by taking up issues like halaal and hijab.

Telangana ignored by BJP

First of all, the Bharatiya Janata Party should clarify on what it had done for Telangana in the last eight years. He went on to ask why the promises made in the AP Reorganisation Act were ignored conveniently. "Have they given national project status to Kaleshwaram, a tribal university, ITIR, or Kazipet coach factory to Telangana? There is no new medical college, not even a single renowned educational institution has been set up, nothing new has been established in Telangana in the past eight years. When asked about the same, the Centre does not have answers." No other Prime Minister had thrust so much of a debt burden on the country as Narendra Modi did, he said.

It has been eight years since Bhartiya Janta Party-led government came into being, but all promises which were made to win the elections were still incomplete. The government was abusing central agencies like the ED, CBI, etc by inciting them against those who were opposed to them. The TRS extended its support to the candidate proposed by the Opposition with a view to vehemently opposing the policies – dictatorial and undemocratic policies and spree of injustices meted out to different sections of people. Eight state governments were toppled and the BJP captured power. They spared no effort to make a mockery of democracy, said KTR.

"We need to reject such policies. We are unequivocally rejecting the candidate proposed by the BJP precisely for these reasons. All opposition parties came forth to oppose their autocratic,undemocratic and unconstitutional approach," he observed.

Referring to the selection of a tribal candidate for the top job in the country, KTR said that if the BJP was committed to the upliftment of the tribals, it must set up a tribal university, and ratify the increased quota of reservations created for the scheduled tribes (STs) by the Telangana Government.