Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has questioned the criticism by Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) over his reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as ‘big brother’, and asked if the PM wasn’t an elder brother figure to the people.
“I met him openly at a public meeting unlike other leaders who whisper in PM’s ears requesting his support to make his son the Chief Minister,” he said referring to former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s alleged request to Mr.Modi to make K.T. Rama Rao the Chief Minister when BRS was in power in the State.
In an informal chat with reporters here, Mr. Revanth Reddy said whatever he had demanded from the Prime Minister was out in the open and related to the State’s development, not for personal benefit.
Rejecting claims that he had obsessively praised Mr. Modi in the public meeting over the ‘Gujarat model’, he said that he had urged the PM to fund projects in Telangana as he did for Gujarat. “If someone has a problem seeking funds for Telangana development, then let it be,” he said.
Mr. Reddy said Rahul Gandhi was his leader and he would praise him and Sonia Gandhi instead of the Prime Minister, while referring to criticism that he was trying to impress Mr.Modi at the Adilabad meeting. Seeking funds and projects from the Prime Minister did not constitute praise, he said, clarifying that his words and requests should be seen in the context of a federal power and political structure in the country.
About the Telangana government signing MoUs with Gautam Adani group, he said unlike the BJP government that is selling the nation’s assets to Mr. Adani, “I am ensuring that Adani invests his money in Telangana rather than handing over the State’s assets to him”.
