The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Telangana received another jolt ahead of the Munugode bye-election with former Rajya Sabha member Rapolu Ananda Bhaskar quitting the party on Wednesday, October 26. He is expected to soon switch loyalties to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). A prominent leader from the Padmashali (weavers) community and senior journalist, Bhaskar said he was resigning from BJP due to the anti-people policies of the union government.
Bhaskar was a member of the Rajya Sabha between 2012 and 2018 when he was in Congress, and joined the BJP in April 2019. In a resignation letter to BJP President JP Nadda, Bhaskar wrote that the BJP had failed to adhere to principles like “positive secularism” and cooperative federalism. “For reaping electoral benefits, terrifying and creating division is hallmark of the party now,” Bhaskar wrote.
He questioned that at a time when the United Kingdom (UK) had a Prime Minister of Indian ethnicity, which constitutes only around 3% of its population, and the United States had a Vice President of Indian origin, “What type of awkward divisions were being promoted (in India by BJP)?” He also questioned the BJP over poor governance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bhaskar said that at a time when poor, semi-skilled workers dependent on daily wages were “thrown into continuous deep turmoil”, the Union government “unabashedly claimed that there was no death following oxygen scarcity.”
Bhaskar alleged that social justice and social empowerment were far away from the BJP’s sight. He objected to the union government’s reluctance to conduct a caste census. “Regional pride and language emotions are belittled as intentional…and single language hegemony is encouraged. The union government has vigorously shown step-motherly treatment towards Telangana and grabbed away several rightful opportunities from Telangana,” Bhaskar wrote.
Bhaskar also expressed his displeasure over the imposition of GST on the handlooms and textiles by the union government, terming it as an attempt to weaken the sector. He said that the union government’s policies were serving corporations while weavers' lives were severely affected. “There is a long list of grievances to highlight the disinterested nature of the party but, the observation of welfare as "FREEBIE" has shaken me to the core,” Bhaskar wrote. He also said that over the last four years, he was “ignored, humiliated, underrated and excluded” by the party in a national role.