BRS to boycott PM’s Warangal visit to protest discrimination to Telangana

Hyderabad, July 7 (IANS) Telangana’s ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has decided to boycott Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Warangal on Saturday in protest against discrimination against the state.

BRS Working President and state minister K.T. Rama Rao said on Friday that their party will not attend the programme, where the Prime Minister is scheduled to lay the foundation stone for some projects.

KTR, as Rama Rao is popularly known, questioned with what face was PM Modi, was visiting Telangana after humiliating the people by questioning the formation of Telangana and by not honoring any commitment made to the state at the time of bifurcation.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to lay the foundation stone for the Railway Manufacturing Unit and a few highway projects.

The BRS leader said last year, the Prime Minister laid the foundation for a coach factory at Dahod in his home state Gujarat with an investment of Rs.20,000 crore. “But when it comes to Telangana, he is laying the foundation for a repair unit with just Rs 521 crore against the coach factory that was assured under the AP Reorganisation Act,” he said.

He said Telangana people would not fall prey to BJP’s cheap tactics of claiming to set up a railway unit.

Alleging that the BJP government is washing its hands off the promises made to Telangana in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, KTR, who is also the Minister for Industry and Commerce, said while the railway unit is coming up with a paltry investment of Rs 521 crore, Medha, a private company had set up a coach factory with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore in Telangana.

He accused the BJP government of also deliberately denying the Tribal University that was promised to be set up at Mahabubabad. This was even after the state government handed over 360 acres for establishing the university. He alleged that the Modi government also failed to honour the commitment of setting up a steel plant at Bayyaram.

"After nine years of betrayal, the BJP was trying to appease the people by laying the foundation for a repair unit at Kazipet. The people of Telangana were not fools to believe the Prime Minister," he said.

KTR also slammed state Congress chief A. Revanth Reddy saying he never criticised  Modi. Dubbing Revanth Reddy as an RSS and BJP man, the BRS leader said he had no right to criticise the BRS.

Rubbishing the allegations that BRS is a "B team" of the BJP, KTR said the Congress and the BJP worked together in by-elections to Munugode, Huzurabad, Nagarjuna Sagar, and Dubbaka Assembly seats.

Claiming that BRS is the only party which is taking on the BJP, he remarked that national alliance is only in the statements of some leaders but there is nothing on the ground.

KTR also said while Modi has done nothing for the country, "Rahul Gandhi is also not recognised as a leader by anybody".