BRS working president KT Rama Rao questioned Union Home Minister Amit Shah as to why the BJP-led Centre had failed to order an investigation into the corruption allegations against the Congress government in Telangana.
He said, despite having the CBI, ED, and other investigation agencies at its disposal, the Centre had not initiated a single probe against the Revanth Reddy government.
“You say the Congress is looting Telangana like an ATM, yet no investigation? What is stopping you, Mr Amit Shah?” he asked, reacting to the Home Minister’s statements during his visit to Nizamabad on Sunday.
Stating that the BJP was shielding the Congress government in Telangana, while playing a double game to suppress the BRS, he said BJP leaders themselves had repeatedly accused the Revanth Reddy government of corruption, with the BJP-led Central government’s inaction against the Congress Chief Minister only exposing a tacit understanding between the two parties.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself accused Rahul Gandhi and Revanth Reddy of jointly collecting ‘RR tax’ during his last visit, but till date, no action has been taken,” he said.
Rama Rao suspected that the BJP was using Revanth Reddy as a pawn to weaken the BRS in Telangana. Despite having eight MPs, including two Union Ministers from Telangana, the BJP did not accord national project status to any
irrigation project. “No IIT, IIM, or central medical institute has been granted. This discrimination did not go unnoticed by people of the State,” he added.
He also pointed to the failures of the BJP government at the Centre in delivering on the promises made in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, such as the Bayyaram Steel Plant and ITIR for Hyderabad.
Instead, the BJP government was pushing forward Andhra Pradesh’s Banakacharla project, while curbing Telangana farmers’ water rights and privatising operations of the Kazipet Coach Factory, depriving employment opportunities for local youth, he said, also hitting out at the BJP for politicising and running a slander campaign against the Kaleshwaram project.
“Instead of acknowledging its success, you are trying to discredit it for electoral mileage,” he said.
Rama Rao ridiculed the repeated inaugurations of the Turmeric Board. “How many times will you launch the same board? Piyush Goyal launched it virtually in January. What is new in today’s (Sunday’s) ribbon-cutting?” he asked, adding that the Centre did not release any funds for the Board and instead, set up its office inside a building constructed by former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao.
He stated that the BJP, which has shown consistent bias against Telangana, had already been rejected earlier and would never come to power in the near future.