HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday doubled down on his resolve for a change of guard at the Centre as a continuance of the present dispensation would spell doom for the entire country.
Speaking to the media at Pragati Bhavan, the Chief Minister, covering a wide gamut of issues of national importance, said: “We have to drive the BJP out at any cost. It is about time that the people had to be awakened on the need for ushering in a new system of governance.”
“If you awaken people, they themselves will lead you. All leaders would have to go after them,” he said and reminded that this was the line on which the Telangana movement was built and it is now history how effective it had proved to be. To a question, he said that if necessary he would form a party at the national level to further the cause of the movement which he wants to be built in a peaceful and democratic manner. He said he was ready to involve all those leaders who share his line of thinking.
“In a day or two, I might visit Mumbai and discuss the issues at stake with Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray. Very soon, I will be in Delhi, to wash the BJP’s dirty linen in public,” he said.
He, however, evaded answers to whether he would work with Congress to take the movement forward. “There is a talk that since I had condemned the way Assam CM had abused Rahul Gandhi that I am planning to work with the party. I did not approve of Assam CM’s comments because they were very repulsive and disgusting. But it does not mean I am joining hands with the Congress,” the Chief Minister said.
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In the same breath, he slammed Assam Chief Minister for asking him why he had not reacted in the same way when Rahul Gandhi had sought proof for surgical strikes on Pakistan. As the leader of the party, he has every right to ask for proof since half of the nation believed that it was a sham attack intended to serve BJP’s political ends. But Assam Chief Minister’s attack on Rahul is unpardonable as it indicated the decadent depths to which he had plummeted. “Everyone should condemn it,” he said.
When pressed for an answer whether the Congress would be part of the formation that he is trying to evolve to throw the BJP out lock, stock and barrel, Rao said he cannot say anything at present. “I am more interested in the effort to awaken people. I am working in this direction. I do not know who will come along with me. But I will definitely play an important role in the shape of things set to emerge in future,” the Chief Minister said.
Rao acted cagey when sought for a direct answer on whether he would attend the non-Congress and non-BJP chief minister’s conference, which Mamata Banerjee is going to organise to condemn the way the BJP was denigrating and abusing the institution of Governors in the country.
“I am yet to take a call on this but I am against the present practice of the ruling party using the Governors to serve its political objectives. The rot had set in long ago and under the BJP rule, it has even gone deeper. In Uttarakhand, when the Governor was dismissed, the High Court had to step in to reverse the decision,” he pointed out.
Rao, while speaking about the national alternative, mused on how leaders are born. “No one had thought Neelam Sanjiva Reddy will become the President. Film heroes MGR and NTR became CMs. Even Modi who sold tea became the PM. My mother did not know that I would become the chief minister when I was born,” he said, dropping subtle hints that he too was game for the leadership of the nation if the opportunity presented itself to him as he worked on what he thought was needed for the country’s prosperity.
Rao was very critical of the BJP’s rule at the Centre and said that its hallmark -- religious bigotry, was dividing the country on communal lines. Referring to the hijab row in Karnataka, he said that it was time that a concerted effort is made to see that religion should not divide people and derail economic growth and prosperity.