Hyderabad: Former Minister & TPCC PAC Convener Mohammed Ali Shabbir has accused the TRS and BJP of jointly enacting the dramas of investigation, summons, notices and arrests to distract the people’s attention from the real issues.
Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Sunday, Shabbir Ali asked in what way the sale and purchase of TRS MLAs would affect the common people. “CM KCR has engineered 47 defections in his first term and 14 defections in the second term. A total of 4 MPs, 25 MLAs and 18 MLCs from Congress and other parties were made to defect to TRS from 2014-18 and 12 Congress MLAs and 2 TDP MLAs defected to TRS after 2018. Why did KCR not speak about ethics, morals and democracy while engineering those defections?” he asked.
Shabbir Ali pointed out that three out of four MLAs, whom BJP allegedly tried to purchase, originally belonged to the Congress party. “KCR purchased Congress and TDP MLAs at whatever cost known only to KCR and those MLAs. Neither people of those constituencies, nor the common people of Telangana benefitted from that sale. It doesn’t matter to common people if BJP purchases 4 or 40 MLAs. People know very well that the politics of both BJP and TRS is confined to defections and horse-trading,” he alleged.
The Congress leader said that the TRS and BJP enacted the drama of the farmhouse case for about 10-15 days. Now they came up with another drama involving TRS MLC Kavitha. Since CM KCR’s daughter’s name will bring more media attention, BJP and TRS are doing politics around Kavitha, he alleged.
“Kavitha is accused of corruption in the Delhi liquor scam. In what way common people will gain or lose if CBI or ED arrests Kavitha? If Central agencies have sufficient evidence, then they should arrest Kavitha. If she is not involved, she should prove her innocence in court. Instead of dealing with the matter legally, TRS and BJP are doing publicity stunts over this issue,” he said.
Shabbir Ali said that the BJP Govt targeted Congress leaders in a baseless and fake case of the National Herald. BJP Govt used the Enforcement Directorate to target National Herald, a newspaper which played a great role in the freedom movement and summoned senior leaders including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others leaders. “We appeared before the ED and explained that we did nothing wrong. TRS leaders should also do the same if they are innocent,” he said.
The Congress leader asked why BJP leader B.L. Santosh was afraid of facing a probe by the Special Investigation Team in the poachgate case. If BL Santosh has played no role in the alleged poaching episode he should appear before the SIT and explain. His desperate attempts to avoid probe strengthen the suspicion that he might be involved, he alleged.
“Why are TRS and BJP not talking about people’s issues? Why are both parties silent on rising inflation? The prices of crude oil have been down and the Central Govt can bring down the prices by at least 10-15 rupees per litre. But both BJP and TRS Govts are not doing anything to reduce the prices. Shabbir Ali said PM Modi had promised 2 crore jobs every year while CM KCR promised one job for every household. But now both are silent about the problem of rising unemployment.
He said that no review was held on the just-concluded Kharif season. Further, the Agricultural Action Plan was not declared for the Rabi season. No advisory has been issued to farmers on the crops to be grown this season. The Chief Minister did not conduct a single meeting to check whether or not farmers had sufficient and better seeds, fertilizers and other facilities. TRS Govt did not waive off the crop loans up to Rs. 1 lakh and also failed to direct the banks to release fresh loans to the farmers for Rabi season, he said.
Shabbir Ali said the private medical and engineering colleges have increased their fee putting a huge burden on thousands of parents and students across Telangana State. The quality of education in universities and their rankings have come down due to a shortage of funds and staff. Similarly, the Law & Order situation is in extremely bad shape with incidents of rapes and murders being reported almost every day, he alleged.
“The blame game between TRS and BJP is not going to help the people. Both the govts have made the common people’s lives miserable,” he said while appealing to the people to gherao TRS and BJP leaders whenever they visit their areas in the city or villages. Shabbir Ali said that the Congress party has planned a series of agitations on public issues. He said massive dharnas have been planned on 5th December on farmers’ issues. Later, the issues related to jobless youth and housing would be taken up.
He also alleged that poor Muslims were being denied a proper share in the weaker section housing programme. He said the previous Congress Govt had reserved 12% of housing units in urban areas and 9% in the rural area for minorities. However, this rule is not being applied anywhere in Telangana. Further, he said the TRS Govt betrayed the Muslims on the promise of giving a 12% quota. Now it is targeting the existing 4% Muslim reservation implemented by the previous Congress Govt. He said that the State Government was yet to issue a proper clarification on whether or not the Muslim quota in Telangana has been reduced from 4% to 3%. “Minorities should launch an agitation to protect their rights and share. If the community remains idle, then the TRS Govt will take away everything given by the previous Congress Govt,” he said.
