BJP spoiling country’s economy by hurting religious harmony: KCR

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of spoiling the country’s economy by disturbing religious harmony. “It is time people responded and reacted to such attempts,” he said.

The CM was referring to the recent incidents in Karnataka targeting girls of a particular community. “They (BJP) are trying to turn Karnataka into a Kashmir Valley by fanning communal passions,” he said while addressing a public meeting at Raigir in Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district on Saturday.

Stating that Bengaluru is the Silicon Valley of Inida, he sought to know whether investments would flow to the country in the times to come if such an ‘atmosphere’ was created. “Investors come to places where there is proper law and order, peace and an ecosystem for economic growth. Will anybody invest in Afghanistan now?” he asked and said that Telangana has been attracting investments in the recent years due to a healthy ecosystem and that has made Hyderabad second only to Bengaluru in IT/ITES exports.

“Such ‘attempts’ are highly uncalled for when unemployment is on the rise and industrial production is low. India’s ranking in the hunger index has also slipped below that of even countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan, in spite of the country having huge surplus food reserves and growing agriculture output every year,” KCR said.

Referring to the personal remarks made against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma during his election campaign in Uttarakhand, Mr. Rao sought to know whether it was Hindu culture or BJP culture to question one’s birth. The TRS chief demanded the BJP leadership to sack Mr. Sarma if they believed in Indian culture.

‘Mindless policies’

Intensifying his attack on the Narendra Modi government, the Chief Minister said that Mr. Modi was making some mindless policies and new farm laws against farmers’ interests was one of it. “It is due to elections in five States that the laws were withdrawn with an apology to farmers. However, the country will not forget BJP’s branding of farmers participating in the strike against the new laws as Khalistan terrorists and one of its leaders mowing down some agitating farmers with his car,” he added.

Mr. Rao said it was only the result of mis-governance that the country was unable to irrigate all its arable lands and give uninterrupted power to all in spite of the availability of 65,000 tmc ft water and 4 lakh megawatt generation capacity. Telangana was the only State to give 24×7 power to all categories of consumers along with free power, investment support (Rythu Bandhu), life insurance cover (Rythu Bima) and irrigation facilities. The State government was trying to stabilise the farm sector that employs more than half of the population, he noted.