People have decided to reelect KCR : KTR
In a free-wheeling chat with Kalyan Tholeti and Prasanna RS of TNIE at his residence, KT Rama Rao speaks about the impact of Dalit Bandhu, Rythu Bandhu and Dharani on the elections, going through the poll grind for nearly 17 hours a day, how he unwinds, and also reveals the name of the first newspaper that he reads every morning
This election is unlike the 2014 and 2018 elections when you had a relatively easy time. It seems the Congress is giving you a tough fight?
Each election is completely different. We have toiled for each election. Everything in retrospect looks easy. I am sure post-December 3, you will tell me that this election was also a cakewalk. But the point is, it never is. Once you are immersed in it and you are inside of it, no election is a cakewalk. In 2018, if you remember, there was a huge hype built around our opposition. They said we are done, we will be thrown out. It is not much different this time. I think social media’s influence has grown and probably you guys are also being influenced.
Don’t you think the Congress is putting up a better fight than earlier?
Well, you have to wait until December 3 to say that. But in my opinion, there is not going to be much difference.
Now that elections have been announced, the campaign has reached a certain level. It is going to peak soon. What is your sense of the ground situation?
I will tell you one thing. During each election, when you go inside of it, it looks like a battle. But the fact is, people’s mood will start crystallising, they will start deciding whom to vote for very, very early on. A majority decide early on. Certain indecisive voters decide 15–20 days before an election. On Thursday, I was in Kodangal which is where the PCC president is contesting from. Please mark my words today. Revanth Reddy is going to lose a second election on the trot. If the PCC president is losing, I don’t see any of the Congress candidates doing any better.
Our reporters are on the field. We reached out to people, particularly in villages. The feedback we are getting is that schemes like Dalit Bandhu are causing heartburn among those who couldn’t benefit from them.
What happens is when your team goes to a village or even when our MLAs go to a village, the typical reaction that I am seeing in the last 17–18 years of my public life is that there is a silent majority who are the beneficiaries. Then there is a vocal disgruntled section that is a minority. What happens is that there are 500 people in a village who are getting pensions. They will not utter a word. There are 50 people who don’t get a pension, they will come and make a hue and cry. If you get carried away by that emotion, that will be a complete misrepresentation of the situation. Secondly, remember in a democracy, you don’t need 90% or 100% of the votes. All I need is 51%. Last time, when you said it was a cakewalk, all we got was 47%. So 53% still effectively voted against us. So this time as well if 47% vote for me, I will be happy.
But, what would you tell the people who haven’t received government benefits?
Governance is all about handling day-to-day issues. You want to tell me there are certain people who are disgruntled. I’ll tell you there are 70 lakh farmers who are getting Rythu Bandhu. I’ll tell you there are 46 lakh Aasara pension beneficiaries, I’ll tell you there are 15 lakh KCR kit beneficiaries. There are 14 lakh Kalyana Lakshmi beneficiaries, you do the math, there are one crore families in the state. The larger benefits of good governance such as drinking water, power, better roads, and irrigation, these are for everybody. 100%. So, if you ask me, have you reached everybody, yes, development has reached every nook and corner of the state. Community projects benefit everybody and that is there for everybody to see today. I’m not saying that this is heaven on earth. There’s more to do for us. Without a question. If there are deficiencies in government schemes too, I agree there will be. I’m not saying every government programme is sacrosanct and everything is going absolutely brilliantly as we had envisaged. Maybe there are deficiencies. That’s governance. It’s about the pursuit of excellence.
Particularly, with regard to Dalit Bandhu, we have come across people who are unhappy.
Have you seen this kind of programme anywhere in the country? First, please appreciate that. Let the people also understand this. First, please appreciate that no government in independent India even had the audacity to think of a programme like this. It’s a very interesting problem… instead of appreciating the government for wanting to do something for the utterly marginalised and underprivileged. See, Dalits are 16–18% of the population in Telangana. And even if we’re able to address a few lakhs of them, that in itself is a laudable thing, which has not been done in 65 years. Why do we always have to be pessimistic? Yes, in society, there is a problem. The problem is, I’m not worried about what I get. I’m more concerned about what you get.
The same goes for jobs too. As you explained earlier, Hyderabad has created a lot of jobs. In the private sector, there has been a lot of employment creation. What about government jobs?
Even in the government sector, we gave the highest number of jobs in the country. No government has done more recruitment than we have. Out of the notifications for 2,32,000 jobs that have been given, 1,60,083 have been filled. The problem in our country is everybody wants instant gratification. We have delivered 16,000 jobs per year if you take nine-and-a-half years as our term. Please look at what my predecessors have done. From 2004 to 14, during the Congress government here, the entire recruitment they’ve done in united Andhra Pradesh, not Telangana, was 24,000 jobs. So a guy who has delivered 1,000 jobs per year levels accusations against another government that has delivered 16,000? We do 16 times more than them and we are accused. Show me one government in the country that has completed more public sector recruitment than us in the last 10 years. None, neither by the Congress nor the BJP. The prime minister talks about paper leakages here. In Gujarat, there are 13 paper leakages in the last six years. And even more incredible is the same guys who protest demanding the postponement of group exams, Bandi Sanjay, Revanth Reddy and RS Praveen Kumar, they will later go ahead and accuse us conveniently saying you’re playing with unemployed youth and their lives. The problem in this state is people are being misled using social media.
You said you had the bad habit of reading all newspapers first thing in the morning.
Yours is the first I read. What I do is get a stack of papers. Of late, because of elections, I pulled out all the business papers. Then I am left with like 13 papers, I leave the Telugu ones last. The first paper I read every day is TNIE.
Coming to politics, what made your party retain almost all the MLAs despite the fact that several of them are facing severe anti-incumbency? Don’t you think this will backfire?
Loyalty. It could, but I believe, eventually, it is about certain things. Loyalty has become a very rare commodity in politics, unfortunately. Every MLA, every aspirant, everybody has their own share of good and bad. While you’re saying there is anti-incumbency, there will also be some good things that have been done by them. And the general mood would be that there is probably more negative and less positive, therefore anti-incumbency. But at the end of the day, we’ve seen this in the past. In 2018 as well, we repeated almost all of our MLAs barring seven. This time as well, we’ve done the same. We have to wait for November 3. It’s too late now [the last date for filing nominations is over].
The Congress is going to town with two big issues: corruption that is being made synonymous with Kaleshwaram, and the recent incident at Medigadda barrage.
Firstly, the Congress talking about corruption has to be the joke of the millennium because that is a party that is synonymous with corruption. A to Z, from Adarsh to Bofors to Commonwealth to everything under the earth and above in the sky. They are the mothership of all corruption in this country. Secondly, Rahul Gandhi is called Pappu and buffoon for a reason.
Don’t you think that he has improved of late?
Is he a refined Pappu now? A raw Pappu or refined Pappu. You go to Kaleshwaram and you say one lakh crore scam in a Rs 80,000 crore project, please help me understand this. I mean, basic math will tell you that it’s ludicrous. That’s why he’s called Pappu. How do you even come out with such wild accusations? People will laugh.
The barrage he went to, the total cost of it was Rs 1,839 crore. Kaleshwaram is not one barrage. It’s not one pump house. It’s not one reservoir. It’s a series of reservoirs, pump houses, and barrages. Nagarjuna Sagar, Dowleswaram, and Prakasam barrage had issues. Srisailam pump house was submerged. Not very long ago. So should I blame Congress? Was there corruption then? Did Congress also take 150% of the total amount that was supposed to be used for the construction of those projects? These are ludicrous charges. And lastly, there was a problem in the Medigadda barrage. It is very much within the defect liability period. And L&T has already said on record that they are going to do whatever it is to rectify it. Annaram pump house also had a similar problem. And the agency there, without putting a single paisa of burden on the exchequer, has rebuilt it.
So in a large project like Kaleshwaram, the choice is ours. Do you want to look at the larger benefit or at two piers where there was an engineering problem? It is an engineering problem. The NDSA [National Dam Safety Authority] report, I call it the NDA report, says the designs are faulty. The Central Water Commission had vetted it. The Technical Advisory Committee had given approval. Kaleshwaram has all the approvals. So does the blame not lie with them as well? They’ve approved faulty designs?
You don’t even take soil samples, nothing. If you have, please put out a quality control report, a lab report, and a soil test report. You do none of this. You cook up a report. And even before we get it in Hyderabad, it is released to the media. There is a clear political motive behind the timing of the report and how it has been prepared.
A pertinent question I would like to ask is in Morbi in Gujarat, 132 people died because a bridge had collapsed. Where was any government agency, Central or State, taking responsibility or pinning responsibility? Is the PWD department of Gujarat responsible? Is it the chief minister? More than 130 people have died. What is happening in this country? Selective justice, selective accusations. Here, there is zero corruption, there is an engineering problem, which is for the engineers to rectify.
The Congress is talking about Dharani as well, that they will scrap it. Of course, the CM is repeatedly saying in his meetings that if Dharani goes, you will not get Rythu Bandhu. But the point here is that the Congress is appealing to people who feel wronged. What do you have to say to the people?
Let people decide. What is Dharani? It is a brand new registration system, a brand new land record management system, which has brought in utmost transparency. Dharani empowers the farmer, and the landowner, and ensures that nobody can tamper with your records. I’m not saying that Dharani is sacrosanct and it does not have some glitches. I’m sure it does. It’s foolish to destroy a system that works. Earlier, there was a time in Telangana or in united Andhra Pradesh where nobody, even if you’re an MP or a minister, there was no way you could get land registered on your name unless you paid a bribe. Today, because of Dharani, that problem is not there.
What do you think about PCC president Revanth Reddy standing up against your father in Kamareddy? And your former colleague, Eatala Rajender, contesting against him in Gajwel? And another question is why is KCR contesting from two segments?
He’s not just my father, he’s the party president. Listen, in a democracy, anybody can contest anywhere. We welcome it. That is not the point. But remember, we beat Revanth Reddy in Kodangal last time. On Thursday, I was in Kodangal. I’m telling you today. Mark my words. He will lose again. I’ve been there. I’ve seen the roar. I’ve seen the people, I’ve seen the response. There’s a huge anti-Congress mood there and he will be thrown out again. And Rajender garu will also lose two seats.
The Congress has come up with several declarations to woo different sections and it is trying to replicate its Karnataka success here.
The Congress is a party that has something called the Udaipur Declaration where they said only one ticket per family. Have they kept it? Where is the guarantee for whatever other garbage they’re creating? The party itself has lost its warranty long back. It’s a very, very old party. Who’s the leader who’s going to guarantee anything? They don’t have a face. There are 11 chief ministers in waiting. They are like the Pakistan cricket team. Since this is World Cup time, let me elaborate. There is one captain and 10 ex-captains. Will that work? People understand that.
The prime minister recently claimed that when he met CM KCR in 2020, the latter said he would hand over the mantle to you. Will KTR be the CM after the elections?
The prime minister had to wait for two years to come out with this brilliant script, which I’m very, very happy about because he should next start writing a nice movie script. He’ll probably win India an Oscar in scriptwriting.KCR garu will continue to remain our chief minister, he will be the first chief minister from the South to score a hat-trick. This is a rare feat that has not been accomplished by legends like MGR, Karunanidhi, Jayalalithaa, Namboodiripad, Hegde, SM Krishna, Rajasekhara Reddy, Chandrababu, NT Rama Rao. KCR will script history.
How many hours are you working per day?
Of late, it’s been going pretty late. By the time I go to bed, it will be 12.30–1 am. So it’s really bad. Not much sleep. But elections are fun and interesting. You can’t take it as a life-or-death battle. I am confident about my party’s poll prospects. We will win. Just that you have to go through the grind. People have already decided. It’s just a psychological game that goes on for a month. It kind of makes us do weird things.
How do you unwind? Some form of spirituality? You have the Buddha [sculpture] here, do you meditate?
I am not a very spiritual person. I watch TV, I do my thing. I will probably go on a vacation afterwards.
Wish you a happy Diwali!
Thank you very much. Wish you the same and to all of your readers as well. Cheers.
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