HYDERABAD: In what is seen as his strongest warning yet to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday declared that “those who are looting the poor in the State will not be spared.”
Addressing a large gathering of BJP workers at the Begumpet airport upon his arrival here before heading to Ramagundam, Modi sought to enthuse them, on the one hand, and on the other, signaled to the TRS that the party was going to be a formidable force, notwithstanding the recent bypoll loss in Munugode, and the TRS MLAs poaching case in the days to come.
Recalling his remarks from the ramparts of the Red Fort that corruption and family rule had to be wiped out, he said some people, who were under the scanner of central agencies for corrupt activities, were forming an alliance to prevent investigation.
Modi also dwelt at some length on the abusive language being repeatedly used against him by some TRS leaders. In his trademark sarcasm, he said, “Out of fear, disappointment and desperation, some are abusing me day in and day out. They have even published dictionaries of expletives! I request BJP workers not to get upset as they (TRS leaders) have nothing to offer except expletives. Just enjoy the fun, have a cup of tea, and go to bed with the belief that Lotus will soon bloom in Telangana.”
Explaining that he had been touring Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana since Friday, the Prime Minister joked that his reply to people, who ask him whether he wouldn’t get tired, was that he receives two-three kg of abuses every day. “God has blessed me in such a way that all those words get processed inside my system and are converted into nutrition. It gives me energy.”
Much to the delight of the crowd, he went on to warn the TRS. “I’m ready to digest abuses hurled at me. But if you abuse the people of Telangana, they will give it back to you. If you play with their dreams, situation will get even more serious,” he cautioned the TRS leadership. In the same breath, he mocked TRS chief and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao albeit indirectly when he said it was regrettable that in an IT hub like Hyderabad, superstition was given official sanction. Decisions like even cabinet formation are made based on superstitious beliefs, he alleged.
Service is BJP’s motto: Modi
Stressing that politics is a means to serve people, he said the political agenda of the BJP has always been constructive, with service as its motto. Pointing fingers at the TRS government, he told the BJP cadre that the people of the State want to elect a party that works for every family instead of just one.
On the Munugode bypoll, he said the very fact that the entire TRS top brass was forced to camp in the Assembly segment showed the public confidence that the BJP enjoys. Appreciating the BJP workers for not bowing their heads to the “atrocities perpetrated by the State government” during the bypoll, Modi said the people of the country were watching how the people of Telangana were angry at the way democracy, development and social justice were being shattered by the corrupt and family rule prevailing in the State.
Echoing former PM Vajpayee’s famous prophesy, Modi declared, “Lotus begins to bloom when darkness envelops all directions. results of all the bye-elections in the State show that the Sun is going to shine and Lotus is going to bloom soon.” Modi’s speech had the BJP workers in raptures dispelling even if for a moment the despondency that came along after the party’s Munugode loss.
PM PEDDLING LIES: TRS
Reacting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assertion in his speech in Ramagunda on Saturday that there was no proposal to privatise SCCL, TRS leaders said that the former was ‘peddling lies’ to mislead the people of Telangana. They alleged that the Centre offered four coal blocks for sale in the State through auction. Telangana State Planning Board Vice-Chairman B Vinod Kumar said, “Whether the statement of union minister Pralhad Joshi in Parliament is true or Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement in Ramagundam meeting is true?”