HYDERABAD: The foundation day of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which falls on Monday, will be a low-key affair with lockdown restrictions being in force.
As public gatherings and celebrations are verboten, the party leadership has given a call that the workers should celebrate the occasion without any pomp and show.
While making an appeal to the party workers to this effect, TRS supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday recalled the strides the party had made in its 20-year history and milestones it had achieved while on its way to making the State prosperous.
“After coming to power about six years ago, the TRS government had created miracles. The strides it had made in implementation of welfare schemes and the measures of success it had achieved in sectors like power, drinking water, irrigation, agriculture and industries are noteworthy,” he said. Though the 20th anniversary is a momentous occasion, the Chief Minister said, the TRS is celebrating it without any fanfare all because of the lockdown restrictions that are in place to prevent spread of the Coronavirus.
“On some other day, let us celebrate the 20th anniversary on a grand scale,” he said.
He wants the ministers, MLAs and party leaders to remain where they are and hoist the party flags. Rao himself would unfurl the flag at the party office at 9.30 am on Monday.
Meanwhile, party working president KT Rama Rao, speaking to the media, recalled how the party’s two-decade journey and the TRS government had become a role model for the entire country.
TRS has now become an invincible force: KTR
“The way KCR had led the Telangana movement and his style of functioning after coming to power would provide the grist for those who want to study how a leader and government should be like,” he said. Rama Rao, after donating blood on the eve of the TRS foundation day, asked the party workers to do likewise and help the needy who are going trough a tough time due to lockdown restrictions. He wanted them to draw inspiration from the 20-year history of the party and rededicate themselves for the welfare of the people.
“The party has journeyed from Jala Drishyam (party office on the banks of Hussain Sagar) in 2001 to Sujala Drishyam now,” he said referring to the state government’s flagship project, Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme. “On the political front the TRS may not be playing a direct role in the national politics. However, it has been influencing the thinking at national level with its innovate people-centric programmes. Several states and even the Centre have rehashed their programmes on the lines of the ones that have been conceived and implemented in Telangana,” Rama Rao said. He said that the TRS made history as a party which had risen to unbelievable heights with a single point agenda of separate Telangana State and achieving that goal.
“Even the then Union Finance Minister late Arun Jaitley had told me that only KCR could get a name as a leader of a movement and later as able administrator which is not possible for others,” he said, pointing out that there were only very few parties which could withstand the political vagaries for 20 long years and stand as robust organisations as the TRS did. “The party with its 60 lakh members has transformed into an invincible force,” he said, while adding that it is everyone’s wish that Chief Minister KCR should continue in office for another 10 to 15 years.
Expressing the hope that Corona nightmare would end soon and the party as well as the State would be back on track, he said: “The party offices in the districts would be inaugurated once the normalcy returns.” Taking a swipe at the Opposition parties, he said the people had already rejected them. “The people want the TRS to be in the saddle. That is why they have sent the party to power in each election,” he said, pointing out that even those who hated KCR at the time of the division of the State are now praising his visionary leadership. “They have understood that division of the State was intended to bring about an all-round development,” he added.