Slamming the NDA government over its "anti-farmer and anti-worker policies”, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said a meeting of leaders of non-NDA parties will soon be held in Hyderabad to give shape to an anti-BJP platform. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) President said West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Janata Dal-Secular leader H D Kumaraswamy, Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, and DMK chief M K Stalin will be invited for the meeting aimed at bringing together non-NDA parties. The conclave of opposition leaders is likely to be held in the second week of December.
Addressing a meeting of TRS leaders on Wednesday in connection with the December 1 election to Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, the TRS chief declared a war against the BJP government at the Centre. KCR said Hyderabad would be epicentre of the movement against the BJP government for its "anti-people, anti-farmer and anti-labour" policies and the TRS will lead the movement. He said at the meeting that leaders of various parties were looking at him to take the initiative for taking on the BJP.
He recalled that he already held talks with Mamata Banerjee, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. He said he also met Stalin, Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati, NCP President Sharad Pawar, former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, the Left parties and others.
KCR claimed that they decided to work together on the issue of fighting against the policies pursued by the BJP. He vowed to stand by farmers, workers and the poor who are suffering due to the Centre's policies.
Launching a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi government, he said it did nothing for the country in the past six and a half years. He alleged that the BJP government pushed the country back with false propaganda and wrong policies. KCR said since Congress has miserably failed, the onus was on non-NDA parties to take on regressive BJP.
He slammed the Modi government for what he called mismanaging the economy with its wrong policies. He alleged that the Centre is destroying public sector undertakings, and raised questions over the disinvestment proposals related to public sector units, including LIC, and privatisation of Railways.
Modi who described himself as 'chaiwala' at a railway station was now 'selling' the railway station, he said. "God knows where the 'chaiwala' has gone. The person who said he sold tea is now selling the railway station... What is the necessity to privatise railways that provide employment to lakhs and serve crores of people?" Rao asked.
He said the previous NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee initiated the disinvestment ministry. It did not set up any PSUs but 'finished' seven of them, while the Congress government of Manmohan Singh handed out the same treatment to another three, he alleged.
The present Modi government targeted 23 PSUs which includes theLIC, the largest insurance firm in the world with 40 crore policyholders, he said, asking why it should be privatised. The LIC handed over a dividend of Rs 2,600 crore to the Centre even this year, he said. "Who knows where would foreign firms invest their money?" he asked.
Stating that GDP of countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka has become higher than that of India, KCR said that if the BJP government continues, even Nepal will surpass India.
He also accused BJP of spreading falsehood. "The BJP is propagating lies and making people believe in them as the truth. It has successfully transformed social media into an anti-social media platform to spread lies like wildfire," he said. He said the TRS leaders should initiate a debate before the people of Hyderabad on whether they wanted a peaceful city that achieved rapid economic growth, or one that would witness communal violence and curfews.
With inputs from IANS and PTI