Chief Minister Revanth Reddy says there is no question of political vendetta against the BRS. Speaking to TNIE’s Kalyan Tholeti, he termed the phone-tapping issue serious and pointed out that it came to light through police officers. Indicating that it has national security implications, he said police have been directed to do what is needed.
Excerpts from the interview:
How has your experience in office been? Some said you didn’t have experience in governance.
Governance has been tough, but not because of my lack of experience. I have been in the opposition for a long time and know the issues in detail. I have a core group of experienced people. It has been tough because of the previous government’s disastrous rule. Believe it or not, the then chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao did not review 22 of the 29 departments even once during his 10-year tenure! He was only after departments that could be used to mint money. Scores of files were never touched. We are now trying to streamline everything.
If you could pinpoint, what has been the toughest challenge so far?
Governance. KCR destroyed everything. We have to put our heads together to revive institutional mechanisms and deploy able officers to look into pending issues.
You have presented a white paper on state finances in the Assembly. Going by it, it looks like the government is not in a comfortable position to implement the guarantees that you have promised.
It is a challenge, I agree. But if you have seen, we have plugged loopholes and increased our revenues in the last few months. We have implemented or launched our guarantees as promised, be it the Mahalakshmi scheme, Gruha Jyothi or others. We are sincere and we are implementing them without compromise. To give you an idea, KCR left the state finances in ruins. We have to shell out Rs 77,000 crore just for debt-servicing annually and we need Rs 55,000 crore for salaries and pensions for employees of all categories. He ran the government like a feudal lord who runs his family recklessly, going from being rich to a pauper with debts, and eventually, leaves the village to save his face.
How do you see the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections? Will it be a straight fight between BJP and Congress or do you see a role for the BRS too?
Lok Sabha elections are fought on national issues but there will always be a regional flavour definitely. If the BRS is in the fray in a serious way, it might change some equations in some constituencies. But the main battle will be between BJP and Congress. We are confident of winning 12–14 seats.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party are keen on making a big mark in Telangana this time. What do you think about it? And also, your view on the national scene.
First of all, think logically. They may try but if you observe, the BJP is looking for alliances everywhere. Why do you need a Nitish Kumar, JD(S), TDP, and even small parties in UP and Bihar if you are so confident of winning? In 2004, the then prime minister Vajpayee went for elections with the ‘India Shining’ slogan and lost. In 2019, the BJP did not appear as aggressive or desperate for alliances as it is now. In 2014, they were looking for alliances. It is not as strong in 2024 as it claims to be. Don’t write off the opposition. There is anger against the Modi government. He may face same fate as Vajpayee.
We hosted poll strategist Prashant Kishor recently in our Hyderabad Dialogues programme. He predicted that after the Lok Sabha polls, if the BJP wins big, it might do a Himachal in Telangana. Your thoughts?
It is unlikely they will win big. Secondly, yes they will try. They have done the same in several other states. But we need to have our own strategy and I have one. We are inviting leaders from other parties who are willingly coming to us. Several legislators are in touch with us. We have to make sure that the people’s mandate is respected. The mandate has been given to the Congress for five years.
We heard that you invited former IPS officer Praveen Kumar as well?
Yes. We offered him an MP seat and a working president position as well. For some reason, he joined the BRS. It only shows whose side he was on from the beginning.
The major issue hogging the headlines right now is phone-tapping. Can you elaborate on that? The BRS has alleged that there is nothing illegal there and some leaders are saying you could be going for a witch-hunt.
It is a serious issue. How did it come to light? The suspended DSP rank officer tried to destroy hard disks and threw pieces in the Musi river. The Special Intelligence Branch was led by whom before the elections? The then officials were all close to KCR. I knew all this before. But we did not deliberately set out to find something or target anyone. The police officers who assumed charge in SIB after the polls found that everything was destroyed. I told the police officers only one thing. I will not interfere and they should do what they must. You see, this has national security implications too. I am not interested in political vendetta. I am more concerned about governance, people and our party. MP Santosh was booked but that was based on a complaint from a major company, Navayuga. How could the police not take their complaint? For that matter, CM Ramesh, who I know well enough, has also been booked in some case. We have given police the freedom to do what is right.
Coming back to the Congress, it is a fact that many leaders are not happy with the nominated posts and even the ongoing exercise over LS ticket distribution.
Let me tell you, for the first time, nominated posts were given to leaders from the party’s frontal organisations. This has never happened before. We have kept in mind several factors such as social justice, hard work and party’s interests. We cannot make everyone happy but we are doing our best. As for Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha seats, the party has a mechanism. The high command takes the final call. I can only recommend names after discussions with our leaders.
Politics aside, the BRS is claiming that your government is unable to supply irrigation water to farmers.
When did we come to power? In winter. It doesn’t rain in winter. Why couldn’t they store water? Their major failure is the Kaleshwaram project. Medigadda is a barrage that is damaged. Its piers sank into the water. The problem, as I have said earlier, is that we cannot store water. First, it has structural damage and second, it is a barrage, not a reservoir. They tried using it like a reservoir, which caused the damage. Not just Medigadda, even Annaram is also not safe. The National Dam Safety Authority is looking into it. It is simply not possible to use Medigadda, which is the water source point and then, lift the water to Annaram and beyond. It will result in a disaster. We have made sure that there will be no drinking water problem in the state. We have a problem with respect to agriculture. We are doing our best under the given circumstances.
