HYDERABAD: What started off as a political blame game between the TRS and BJP over paddy procurement and progressed to a slugfest has now taken the turn of a tit-for-tat political action on the ground. The BJP has announced that it would be countering the TRS protest at Telangana Bhavan in New Delhi with a ‘deeksha’ of its own in Hyderabad on Monday.
Police have granted permission for BJP’s ‘Rythu Deeksha’ with the slogan “procure paddy or step down,” to be held at the Dharna Chowk near Indira Park at 10 am on Monday. The saffron party plans to mobilise its entire State leadership, in addition to inviting Union Minister of State for Foreign and Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan.
BJP State president B Sanjay Kumar will be leading the assault on the State government, along with party leaders like DK Aruna, P Muralidhar Rao, AP Jithender Reddy, Vijayashanthi, P Sudhakar Reddy, Vivek Venkataswamy, G Mohan Rao, M Raghunandan Rao, Eatala Rajender and others.
The intention is clear.
The BJP leadership has been stressing repeatedly that the Centre has made it clear on a number of occasions that there was no problem in procuring raw rice from Telangana, no matter what the quantity may be.
The party claims that despite its leaders bringing it to the notice of the State government repeatedly, the latter was resorting to playing politics by refusing to start paddy procurement centres on one side, and waging a political war on the Centre demanding procurement of paddy from Telangana, which are contradictory moves by the ruling party.
Due to the political drama, BJP leaders have accused the State government of deliberately creating a situation where farmers would be made victims of distress sale of paddy. This, they say, would benefit rice millers, middlemen and TRS leaders who are hand-in-glove to push the prices down and exploit the prevailing situation.
BJP leadership claims that through the minimum support price for Grade A fine grain variety of paddy is Rs 1,960 per quintal, farmers presently have been getting only `1,400, which could further go down in the coming days, as the lion’s share of paddy is yet to be harvested in the state.
The last time BJP had staged a protest at Dharna Chowk demanding the State government to open paddy procurement centres a couple of weeks ago had received good response from the public. BJP leadership is confident that Monday’s protest would maintain the momentum in the party’s fight against the TRS in Telangana.
Sanjay has repeatedly been saying in the past week that if TRS went to Delhi to protest, BJP will go to villages and expose the failure of the TRS to work for the welfare of farmers.
BJP confident of a good response to its protest
The last time BJP had staged a protest at Dharna Chowk demanding the State government to open paddy procurement centres a couple of weeks ago had received good response