HYDERABAD: Taking a strong exception to Union Home Minister Amit Shah for asserting that the BJP, if elected in the elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), would develop Hyderabad into a global IT hub, TRS working president and Municipal Administration Minister KT Rama Rao on Sunday confronted him asking if that were the case how come the party had scrapped the Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) sanctioned for the city by the earlier UPA government.
Addressing a series of whistlestop meetings during his roadshow here, Ram Rao sought to knock the stuffing out of the argument of the national BJP leader, saying that the people of Hyderabad were not so naive to be carried away by the inane promises. "Who would trust a party which had scrapped ITIR that would convert Hyderabad global IT hub?" Rama Rao asked.
He also took a dig at the BJP leader for saying that the saffron party would free Hyderabad of its Nizam culture. "Hyderabad does not have Nizam culture. Its culture is one of the peaceful coexistence of people of all religions. Mahatma Gandhi, in 1920 itself, had said Hyderabad was Ganga Jamuna Tejjeeb, meaning that everyone in the city lived together like brothers. But the BJP, which had nothing to offer to Hyderabad was trying to promote religious bigotry," he said and wanted people to know if they want a city where different religions are in a perpetual fight or one where people lived in harmony.
He said that the BJP was always in the forefront for driving a wedge between communities for reaping the electoral benefit. "One madcap says he would order surgical strikes and another one says memorials of PV Narasimha Rao and NT Rama Rao should be demolished. Then the one who said he would order surgical strikes says he would pull down a building, in an oblique reference to Darussalam, the headquarters of the AIMIM. Do we have to place Hyderabad in the hands of these madcaps?" KTR asked.
He referred to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath speaking about safety of women at a time when in his own state a girl was raped, murdered and her body was cremated, denying her parents even the opportunity to look at her for the last time. But in Hyderabad, everyone knows what happened to the criminals who molested a girl. Hyderabad is not only safe for women but also is a byword for development.
Rama Rao said had KCR not acted with imagination, how could major companies like Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook come to it? If people of different faiths are in conflict with one another all the time, how could investments flow into Hyderabad and how could its brand image be further refurbished. BJP does not want the enhancement of the brand image of a city and rather wants it destroyed. "When Donald Trump was in Hyderabad House in Delhi, four km away from there, a clash between two communities took place. The foreign media had pointed this out," he said.
The TRS leader also sought to debunk the Centre theory that it had been helping the state financially. "The state had contributed by way taxes to the centre Rs. 2.7 lakh crore but in return, it got only 1.4 lakh crore. The remainder is going to UP, Bihar and Gujarat." He also called the Centre to account as to what has happened to Prime Minister's Rs.20 lakh crore corona package. If it is divided among 143 crore population of India, it works out to Rs. 15,384 per head, But has anyone received it?" he asked.