Hyderabad: Union culture minister G Kishan Reddy on Monday said that the Telangana chief minister and TRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) and his family are “masters at lying” and that their politics thrive on it. Reddy added that KCR’s family has the right to protest but not on the basis of “untruths and falsehoods”.
“KCR always says that he alone made Telangana statehood possible. A big part of society including doctors, poets, writers, and many others played a big part in making Telangana possible,” he remarked, while addressing a press conference at the BJP’s state head office.
The Union minister, who is also the Lok Sabha from the Secunderabad seat attacked KCR for not fulfilling his promise to make a Dalit the chief minister of Telangana. “KCR said that he didn’t make a Dalit the chief minister because he didn’t want the state to go into trouble. What does it mean? Does it mean that Dalits are incompetent to rule efficiently? The chief minister has to clarify,” Reddy questioned.
Kishan Reddy defended the Narendra Modi-led central government over the ongoing paddy issue between Telangana and the Centre.
“The government never said that we wouldn’t buy raw paddy. The state government has agreed that they wouldn’t supply boiled rice. Everything was fine. This is a non issue. But now, they are doing all of this not with love for farmers, but just to create a political ruckus post the bypoll. We will buy raw rice now and we will buy rice from Yasangi as well.” he added.
Kishan Reddy alleged that KCR used “all available resources” to win the Huzurabad bypoll, and spent hundreds of crores to “buy voters and local leaders”. Taking a shot at the ruling TRS, the union minister said that during the by-election, it felt as if the state secretariat was situated in Huzurabad. “He monitored the situation directly from Pragathi Bhavan. But he lost. All the drama that is following is a bid to divert people from that loss,” he added.
Kishan Reddy also said that the Centre not against the state government helping farmers in Punjab. This comment is with respect to the Telangana government’s announcement that they will give an ex-gratia of Rs 3 lakh to families of the farmer protest victims.
“I am not against the state government helping farmers in Punjab. There are no records with the Punjab government regarding these deaths. But what about farmers who died in Telangana in the last few years? Isn’t it your prime responsibility to take care of farmers in Telangana?” the Union minister added.