HYDERABAD: The TRS government in Telangana used Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Hyderabad on Saturday to score a political point in their ongoing war of words over the state being ignored in allocation of key projects.
For starters, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao did not receive Modi at the airport as required by protocol. Instead, he sent his cabinet colleague Talasani Srinivas Yadav to the tarmac along with senior bureaucrats. He also skipped event at Muchintal where Modi unveiled a 216-feet tall Statue of Equality of Vedic philosopher Ramanujacharya. The chief minister did not even send his senior ministers to attend the function despite being closely associated with the project.
Although officials in CMO said KCR gave a miss to the Prime Minister's programme because he had a mild fever, sources said he stayed away from sharing the dais with Modi as a mark of protest against the Centre ignoring many of Telangana government's requests.
He may also want to send a message to other nationally relevant opposition parties ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections that he is not soft on BJP.TRS took the battle a step further by making #EqualityForTelangana trend on Twitter by Saturday evening with almost all TRS supporters using the hashtag to complain about how the Centre had meted out what they called step-motherly treatment to Telangana. Many TRS legislators and and ministers tweeted about how Telangana needed to be treated equally with other BJP-ruled states. By evening, the hashtag was the top trend nationally for a couple of hours.
And finally, when Modi was attending a programme at ICRISAT, a group of youngsters protested at Tank Bund with a massive banner asking for ‘equality for Telangana' in giving projects and funds to the state. The banners read: "Modi, you have come to unveil the Statue of Equality at Muchintal near Shamshabad in Hyderabad, where is Equality for Telangana?"
Telangana ministers Errabelli Dayakar Rao tweeted, "Sir what does the union government do with on the letters and representations by Telangana ministers? Very curious to know. There is no reply to our requests at least answer this sir?"
Others like MLC and Rythu Bandhu Samithi chairman Palla Rajeshwara Reddy, Telangana mineral development corporation chairman Krishank, MLA Ravinder Naik and others too raised the issue on Twitter.
KCR has more recently started attacking Modi and the Centre for not allocating enough funds and projects to Telangana in the Union budget 2022. He has even floated the idea of the country needing a new Constitution to strengthen the federal structure.
In the recent past KCR has also skipped a videoconference with Modi on the Covid-19 situation in the state, deputing health minister Harish Rao to attend the session. He had also skipped a crucial Niti Aayog meeting chaired by Modi on health reasons.
