Chandrababu claims Telangana’s rice eating started with TDP scheme, netizens beat the husk out of him

HYDERABAD: Looks like, there is no respite for the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and its cadre from the ill-effects of their President Nara Chandrababu Naidu’s foot-in-mouth disease. His jaw-dropping statements in claiming credit for everything have often reduced him and his party to a butt of ridicule in public domain. In a latest farcical episode on Sunday, the veteran leader, unabashedly and without batting an eyelid, claimed that rice-eating in Telangana started only with the TDP’s Rs 2-a-kg rice scheme.

Ironically, Chandrababu Naidu chose to utter these comments on a day he launched a new initiative, ‘Intintiki TDP’ (TDP to every doorstep) in Hyderabad, aimed at reviving the party and saving it from extinction in Telangana. That it resembled a poor imitation of the ‘Gadapa Gadapaku Mana Prabhutvam’ (Our governance to every doorstep) concept of YS Jaganmohan Reddy, Chandrababu Naidu’s bitter rival in Andhra Pradesh, will serve as a subplot which is likely to be taken care of by the leaders of the ruling party in the neighbouring state.

“Before the Telugu Desam Party came to power (in undivided Andhra Pradesh), we had seen people (in Telangana) eat only jonnalu (sorghum), raagulu (finger millets) and sajjalu (pearl millets). Let me remind you, the habit of cooking rice and eating it as a staple diet started in Telangana only after the TDP came to power and thanks to its Rs 2-a-kg scheme,” Chandrababu Naidu thundered amid loud cheers of the party activists present on the occasion. The latest claim however left a sour taste in the mouth for many Telangana TDP leaders who are now worried about the damage it can cause to their party that is already in the doldrums in the State. They feel that Chandrababu Naidu had not just shot himself in the foot but even turned the gun on his own men with his latest remarks.

Just as they feared, enough damage was already done much before the reality could actually sink in for the TDP rank and file. His gaffe, the latest in a long list of outlandish statements, instantly triggered a tirade by the netizens on the social media platforms. Some laughed it off and dismissed it with disdain as they felt no surprise, given the TDP veteran’s notoriety in this craft. There were many others who took offence to it and called out the former Chief Minister for his arrogance and snobbishness towards the Telangana populace.

“It was this type of prejudice and misplaced ego that revived the separate statehood struggle in Telangana. The TDP was wiped out without a trace after the creation of the new Telangana state. A similar fate awaits it in Andhra Pradesh too. Naidu would be better off focusing his energies in salvaging his party in the neighbouring state,” the netizens commented.

There were a few others who exposed the TDP boss’s ignorance and countered his statement with some sound logic. Telangana Agriculture Minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy, regarded as an intellectual and an authority on agrarian history and culture, was among the first to castigate Chandrababu Naidu. He seemed to suggest that the TDP chief perhaps was in need of a crash course on Telangana’s history, especially the roots of its paddy cultivation.

Taking to Twitter, Niranjan Reddy tweeted in Telugu, “Chandrababu should first get an idea of history before talking. Telangana has a rich history of growing paddy, wheat, sorghum, foxtail millets even from the times of the Kakatiya kings. Hyderabad is famous for its dum biryani right from the 15th Century. KCR garu has spoken umpteen times about ‘biryani, sherwani and kurbani (ka meetha)’ to signify the rich Hyderabadi culture.”

While Niranjan Reddy was statesman-like in his response, one Twitter user showed his cheeky side in his ridicule for the TDP chief. “Yes, it was Chandrababu Naidu who taught us agriculture. And on how to wear clothes, get married and father children.”