The 'Make in India' initiative has become a 'Joke in India, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said on Wednesday, taking a dig at the BJP-led Centre.
Addressing the first public meeting of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) here, party chief Rao said free power would be provided to farmers across the country if a 'BRS proposed government' captured power at the Centre in 2024, following polls to the Lok Sabha.
"Make in India has become Joke in India. There is Make in India, but there are China bazaars in every street (in the country),” he said ridiculing the NDA government's flagship programme.
He further said if BRS comes to power, the Agnipath scheme for recruitment in Armed forces would be abolished.
Schemes like Telangana’s Rythu Bandhu (for the welfare of farmers) should be implemented throughout the country and it is his party's slogan and demand, KCR asserted.
He slammed the BJP and Congress, alleging that both the parties are responsible for interstate water issues.
He said the BRS is opposing tooth and nail the 'disinvestment of LIC'.
Presided by BRS President Rao, the meeting was attended by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan, CPI General Secretary D Raja and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav.
BJP has started counting its days: Akhilesh Yadav
Taking a dig at the Prime Minister Modi’s comment in the national executive meeting that there are only 400 days left for the 2024 elections, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav said here on Wednesday that the ruling BJP has started counting its days and would not last a day more in power.
Speaking at the first public meeting of Bharat Rashtra Samithi here, Yadav said, “the BJP will be out of power after 399 days and a new government will be in place on the 400th day.” He said that the ruling BJP has been pushing the nation behind and it is time for all progressive leaders to come together and work for the country’s development.
“In this historic land of Khammam, Telangana Chief Minister and BRS president KCR has gathered such a huge crowd and given a message to the whole country,” Mr. Yadav said.
Noting that Uttar Pradesh will eventually join other states in rejecting the ruling BJP, he said, “today when we have gathered in such large numbers and in front of this gathering, I can say that if the BJP is being resisted in Telangana, then UP is not far behind.”
Secular, democratic parties need to join hands to take on BJP in 2024 LS polls: CPI
All secular, democratic parties need to come together to fight against the BJP and remove it from power in 2024 Lok Sabha election, CPI General Secretary D Raja said on Wednesday.
Speaking at the first public meeting of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) here, Raja accused the NDA government at the Centre of trying to change the Constitution and democratic rule.
“We will have to fight against the BJP-RSS combine and will have to defeat them in the forthcoming 2024 election. This is the message that should go from Khammam, the revolutionary centre of Telangana. I appeal all secular democratic parties who are present here who are not present here to understand the emerging threat and understand the disaster that we are facing,” he said.
“All secular, democratic parties should work together to defeat BJP. That is the task before everyone. Let us take a pledge from this meeting and move forward and success is ours,” he further claimed.
Mr. Raja alleged some of the governors of non-BJP ruling states are meddling with the elected governments.
“BJP wants to impose a unitary system (in the country). They want to build India as a single-dimensional country.” He lauded the welfare and developmental schemes being implemented by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao-led BRS government in Telangana.
Pinarayi Vijayan calls for ‘new resistance’ against BJP rule
Accusing the BJP-ruled Centre of ‘undoing’ the foundations of the nation’s democracy, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday called for a ‘new resistance’ to protect secularism, democracy and the Constitution and said people’s unity has to emerge against the communal agenda that seeks to divide the country.
“I hope that today, in Khammam, the land of people’s resistances, we will have the beginning of a new resistance, a resistance to secure the ideals that we fought for in our freedom struggle. A resistance to protect our secularism, our democracy, our Constitution and thereby our nation,” Vijayan said.
Without directly naming BJP, Mr. Vijayan said there is a “peculiar situation” in which a political formation that was not part of our national freedom struggle is in power in the country.
Charging that the followers of those who tendered unconditional apologies to the colonisers and promised to serve the imperial crown are at the helm of affairs today, he said they have been and remain “antagonistic” to the values of the anti-colonial struggle.
“Since those in power now were not part of our collective struggles then, they do not know the values on which India has been built as a sovereign, democratic, republic. So, they seek to alter the basic structures on which our modern nation has been built,” the Kerala Chief Minister further said.
Further sharpening his attack against the BJP-led Union government, the Marxist veteran said by signing various international defence agreements, the Centre goes against the concept of sovereignty.
By allowing the concentration of wealth through consistent appeasement of corporates, they go against the concept of socialism and by seeking to replace parliamentary democracy with presidential form of governance, they go against the concept of democracy, he contended.
Enacting laws that divide the people on communal lines, as in the case of the Citizenship Amendment Act, the Centre has thwarted the concept of secularism, he alleged.
Accusing the Centre of having a mission to make India a ‘unitary state’, he said slogans such as ‘One Nation One Tax’, ‘One Nation One Uniform’, ‘One Nation One Election’ are all attacks on federal structure.
Alleging that the Union government is consciously trying to destroy the country’s federal structure, Mr. Vijayan said laws are being enacted repeatedly by the Parliament on subjects in the State List in the Constitution, be it law and order, agriculture, cooperation, power or so on.
Bills that infringe upon the rights of the states are being enacted into laws even without seeking the opinion of state governments, he said, adding that even while entering into international agreements that affect the states, they are not being informed.
When states try to mobilise resources through additional alternative sources, the Centre intervenes and sabotages such moves and even the funds that are made available to the state by the Constitution too are denied, he said.
“Such attacks are most acute in the states that are ruled by governments that are opposed to the BJP-RSS combine ruling the Union. We are seeing it in Telangana, as well as in Kerala,” he said.
Apparently referring to the ongoing tussle of his government with Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on various issues, he said attacks against the states’ rights and powers are being carried out even by politically misusing the office of Governor.
“Widespread efforts are on to take control of the higher education sector through the Governors, in their capacity as Chancellors. Assent to legislations that have been enacted by the State Legislatures are being withheld. Such affronts on the supremacy of State Legislatures weaken not just our federal structure, but even our democracy too,” he pointed out.
Democracy should be protected, if the values that we fought for are to be secured and there is no option but to resist these moves more unitedly, he said.
Governments that have come to power in the states by winning a majority in the assembly elections are being toppled through horse trading, he alleged.
“Such unethical efforts to form governments in the states weaken the very foundations of our democracy, which is based on a multi-party system. Such a multi-party system is essential, if we are to preserve and promote our diversities, while remaining united as one,” Mr. Vijayan added.
He also criticised the BJP government for its alleged effort to portray Hindi as a national language by sidelining other regional languages and for its alleged bid to destroy judicial autonomy.
The Chief Minister termed Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar’s recent criticism against the Supreme Court striking down the NJAC Act of 2015 as “unfortunate”.
Stating that India’s identity as a democratic and secular country was “moulded in the fire of our anti-colonial struggle”, he said the concept of nation that is inclusive of different languages and cultures emerged during our national movement.
“Right now, these very characteristics of India are under a grave threat. The threat is posed by the present generation of those who were sycophants of the empire and betrayers of our struggles. It was those betrayers who murdered the father of our nation,” he further alleged.
He claimed that Mahatma Gandhi was a practising Hindu and was killed by the proponents of Hindutva.
“That is ample proof that Hindutva is not the same as, or even related to Hinduism, the religion. Resorting to Hindutva, efforts are on to create communal polarisation in the country,” he said, adding that by creating polarisation, a last-ditch effort is being made to diffuse the public anger against the misplaced policies of the Union government.
To create better living conditions, there is a need to unite the ordinary and the poor and forge people’s unity against the communal agenda that seeks to divide us, he added.
