The Tuesday Interview | BRS will set an alternative agenda of developmental nationalism, says KTR

Yes, unfortunately we did make the mistake of supporting the Modi government on two-three crucial issues, said KTR

The savvy Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao aka KTR, Telangana’s IT, industries, municipal administration minister, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s working president and ‘the heir apparent’, talks exclusively to DH’s Prasad Nichenametla about his party’s national ambitions, the need to denounce hate politics, and his future role.

Why is the TRS suddenly thinking of going national, becoming BRS i.e., Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi? What is the plan?

Our leader K Chandrasekhar Rao wants to unveil a new development agenda for the country. He is working with a decisive plan, confabulating with leaders, intellectuals etc., to give it a proper shape. He will spell it all out at the right time. KCR’s thinking is that if a new state like Telangana could solve decades’ long drinking water crisis, make farming attractive, then why cannot the rest of the country emulate it?

For example, the country has surplus power but unfortunately, many villages still lack electricity like that of the NDA’s President of India candidate Droupadi Murmu which got a line installed now. How does this augur well for India on the eve of Azadi ka amrit mahotsav? Where is the amrit for the common man?

What explains the Telangana CM’s public outbursts against Prime Minister Modi since last year? The BJP says KCR is rattled by Modi and the BJP’s growth in Telangana, so much that he even skips the PM visits to the state?

The stand KCR garu took is not posturing. Rest of the Opposition has somehow been quiet about or indifferent to pressing issues like, for instance, the faulty economic decisions of Modi. For eight consecutive quarters, businesses and people suffered badly, and GDP slowed down because of demonetisation. If the blame is conveniently put on factors like Covid-19, we certainly have to tell the truth to the nation.

But the TRS was on friendly terms with the BJP in the first term, KCR even supported several of Modi’s moves including the demonetisation...

Yes, unfortunately we did make the mistake of supporting the Modi government on two-three crucial issues. But once you realise it’s a folly, you need to correct it. We had been very patient but in the last eight years, the Centre provided no support to Telangana. And BJP leaders, including the PM, make false claims. Modi recently said that his government gave Rs 1,500 crore for flyovers and elevated corridors in Hyderabad. Not a rupee was given.

Look at what is happening in the country now. A community of 25-30 crore people are being portrayed as maniacs but no one questions. It is KCR who is questioning PM Modi’s silence on Nupur Sharma’s remarks and other hatemongers. Disharmony in society would lead to disastrous consequences for the nation, its future generations. When a tall leader like KCR becomes vocal about these serious matters and presents facts and figures, it cannot be looked at as getting rattled by someone.

Regarding the PM visits, they were private affairs so the CM need not welcome or be with him.

But the TRS, KCR attack on the BJP-Modi coincides with your party’s defeat in Dubbaka, Huzurabad bypolls, and the saffron surge in Hyderabad civic polls...

BJP has no organisational base here in Telangana. They have forfeited election deposits in 108 out of 119 assembly constituencies in 2018. It will not be much different this time too. All surveys show that TRS would get a third term. Some people might see these few random successes as the BJP’s rise, but I am saying that the BJP is going to fall badly, across the country, in the next elections. People will teach Modi ji a lesson for the highest inflation in 30 years, highest unemployment in 45 years, highest LPG prices in the world.

You are KCR’s son, the TRS working president and have been the “CM in waiting” for some years now. When is your elevation to the top post?

I never had such aspirations and I am quite content where I am. I want to see KCR garu as the hat-trick chief minister, the first CM in south India to have pulled off the feat. I am committed to that goal.

One impression around BRS is it is for KCR to move to the national scene while you occupy the CM chair here...

No such selfish, parochial intentions. BRS is meant to set an alternative agenda. We need progressive politics, actually developmental nationalism. One can be a nationalist but it is essential to be a developmental nationalist.

What about the massive corruption allegations your government is facing, especially by BJP’s J P Nadda who says the mega Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project has become KCR’s ATM...

Why doesn’t Nadda talk about the allegations that Modi swung a power project deal for Adani in Sri Lanka? Is that not corruption? Coming to the BJP’s charges, their own government has, while answering a Parliament question, admitted that there is no corruption in Kaleshwaram.

PM Modi in Hyderabad said that pariwarwad is detrimental to the nation and youth aspirations.

It seems that one cannot be a dynast, nor corrupt, if he is with the BJP. The PM is flanked by leaders like J P Nadda, whose mother-in-law was a state minister; Lok Sabha MP, Piyush Goyal’s mother and father were politicians, we know about Jyotiraditya Scindia – he later joined the BJP where his aunt is a leader. And what about Anurag Thakur and his father Prem Kumar Dhumal? Is this all not pariwarwaad? Why this “I am holier than thou” posture?

But don’t you think you came from a favourable position compared to other political aspirants?

True, the party can give you the ticket but in a democracy it is people’s mandate thereafter. If the Sircilla voters have elected me four consecutive times as their MLA, who is Modi or BJP or anyone else to question the voters’ decision? Whether I like him or not, I have to accept Modi as the PM as people elected him, and he should also accept the same in my case.