KTR slams Dharmapuri Arvind for Turmeric Board betrayal, tweets MP’s bond paper

HYDERABAD: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Working President and Telangana Minister K T Rama Rao on Monday exposed BJP MP from Nizamabad Dharmapuri Arvind in a unique way for backtracking on his election-time promise on the establishment of a Turmeric Board.

Tweeting an image of the bond paper that Arvind famously issued to the turmeric farmers before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, KTR ridiculed the BJP MP for completely ignoring the promise post his election. The BRS Working President pooh poohed Arvind by sarcastically asking the electorate of Nizamabad if they recognised this bond paper promise of their MP.

In his tweet, KTR said: “Real insult to Turmeric farmers is promising them a Turmeric Board on a Bond Paper at the time of Parliament Elections and then hoodwinking them by refusing to deliver despite numerous protests

Do you recognise this Bond paper promise of your BJP MP from Nizamabad??

Turmeric Farmers will teach a fitting lesson to Modi Govt for shameful betrayal.”

The BRS Working President’s tweet served as a timely reminder, given the fact that both the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre and Dharmapuri Arvind have been making conflicting claims on this key promise, made loftily before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Arvind, at the height of his campaigning in 2019, made heads turn when he had given a written promise on a judicial bond paper. He claimed that he would ensure the establishment of a Turmeric Board within five days of winning his election. The BJP widely publicised the promise with posters and pamphlets in the turmeric-growing region of the Nizamabad Parliamentary constituency for significant electoral gains.

Four years have passed and, as things turned out, the Turmeric Board continues to be sour grapes for the farmers of the region. Even as the BJP MP kept playing hide and seek over the promise, the NDA eventually poured cold water on the farmers’ hopes by categorically ruling out the very idea. Last month, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel stated that there was no proposal to establish a spice-specific board including a turmeric board, thus exposing the act of betrayal by Dharmapuri Arvind.

Interestingly, Arvind, at the time of issuing the bond paper, even vowed to resign from his Lok Sabha membership, if he failed to deliver on his Turmeric Board promise. Farmers and political rivals have been constantly reminding the BJP MP about his forgotten promise through billboards and flex banners all across his constituency over the last few years. The MP has so far answered these reminders only with his stoic silence.

With next Lok Sabha elections only a year away, KTR pounced on the issue to expose the BJP MP’s glaring act of betrayal towards the turmeric-growing farmers of Nizamabad Parliamentary constituency.