Fulfil commitments to Telangana
On the crosshairs of the eloquent TRS head and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao these days is the Modi government, with which he once shared positive vibes. KCR now is bitterly complaining of Telangana’s gross neglect by the Centre. As TRS chief, he has directed his party MPs to vociferously raise certain key issues concerning Telangana and corner the Centre in Parliament.
And as CM, he is building up pressure by faulting the Union government on various counts on the floor of the Assembly. The issues he has flagged include the abnormal delay in the release of Rs 9,000 crore due to the state from GST accounts, denial of GST compensation after Telangana’s finances took a hit as a result of Covid-19, and the eagerness to amend the Central Electricity Act, which he believes would enable the Centre to have a vice-like grip over states in the area of generation and distribution of electricity.
Other senior members of his Cabinet like K T Rama Rao and Harish Rao too have been equally harsh in attacking the Centre in the ongoing Assembly session. Also, despite Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan’s prodding, KCR has refused to allow the rollout of Modi’s Ayushman Bharat healthcare scheme in its present form, calling it useless as compared to the state’s Aarogyasri version.
Time was when KCR would profusely praise the Modi-led government as corruption-free and openly support the PM’s flagship initiatives like the introduction of GST and demonetisation. His articulation of support was often more effective than that of the then heads of BJP-ruled states. KCR has now swung to the other extreme. One way of looking at it is that he is unpredictable, as in politics, there are no permanent friends or enemies.
Or he perhaps wants to draw attention towards himself by attacking the Centre so as to coax it into at least attending to the genuine issues raised by him. Whatever his strategy, the Centre should fulfil all its commitments to the state regardless of the political sniping. Modi also ought to factor in KCR’s known antipathy for the Congress, both at the state and Central levels, and that he is a powerful leader from Telangana.