Telangana Congress leaders lashed out at Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao terming him an ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said he was not sincere in his opposition to the farm bills but was forced to support the Bharat Bandh fearing backlash from farmers.
The Congress leaders participated in protests at several places in the State. TPCC working president A. Revanth Reddy sat on a dharna at Shadnagar, CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka was at Shamirpet, MLA T. Jayaprakash Reddy blocked a road at Sangareddy and TPCC working president Ponnam Prabhakar participated in protests at Karimnagar.
Mr. Revanth Reddy and Ponnam Prabhakar said the participation of TRS in the Bharat Bandh was nothing but a joke as every democratic protest including by the farmers in Telangana was crushed with brute force.
Mr. Revanth Reddy said KCR’s credibility was in question on the new laws when he did not pass a resolution in the Assembly despite the Congress party demanding it several times. “Ministers and his party workers are now forced to come onto the roads due to the continuous protests by the Congress against the new laws,” he said demanding KCR to convene a special session of the Assembly to oppose and negate the laws as done by several Congress governments.
He said the TRS government came to power with promises like farm loan waiver and never honoured it. “Then he forced ‘regulated farming’ but that turned out to be a ‘dictator farming’”, the Congress MP said, adding that the farmers are now cheated with the government refusing to buy the fine variety of paddy after forcing the farmers to cultivate it.
There was a brief tension at Karimangar when Congress workers objected to TRS participating in the bandh. Mr. Ponnam said TRS was shedding crocodile tears after harassing farmers for the last six years and ‘cheating’ them with false promises adding Congress party had served the farmers selflessly. It was time people saw the dubious intentions of TRS joining the farmers protests.
Mr. Bhatti Vikramarka at Shamirpet targeted the Prime Minister saying he failed the country and was working with the sole intention of helping the corporates. He said Congress was the only party that waived off farm loans at one go and always sided with the farmers.
He reminded it was the Congress that built huge irrigation projects like Nagarjuna Sagar and Srishailam for farmers’s benefit. Modi has only cheated all sections to benefit two or three corporates close to him.
Withdraw laws: Uttam
Later, addressing a press conference, TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded that the BJP government immediately withdraw the contentious new farm laws to protect the interest of farmers. He also urged the CM to convene a special session of Legislative Assembly to negate the new laws.
Mr. Reddy said that the ‘Bharat Bandh’ was successful in Telangana as Congress cadre participated in protests across the State. He alleged that the Modi government was trying to sabotage the farmers’ agitation using false propaganda. He said that the Congress has fought inside and outside parliament against the laws.
The TPCC chief said that the reluctance being shown by the BJP hovernment in not giving Constitutional protection to Minimum Support (MSP) clearly shows that it was giving more preference to corporates than farmers.
He alleged that KCR was an equal partner with PM Modi in ‘committing crimes’ against the farmers reminding how it implicated chilli farmers of Khammam in false cases, arrested, hand-cuffed and chained only for holding protests demanding better price for their produce.
Forcing the regulated cropping system KCR has ruined the lives of lakhs of farmers who cultivated superfine varieties of paddy, instead of regular varieties, he charged. AICC Secretary Madhu Yashki Goud was present.
