KCR attacks Modi for silence on Adani, calls him ‘most inefficient PM ever’

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has called Narendra Modi “the most inefficient Prime Minister the country had ever witnessed.”

He also lashed out at Modi for keeping mum over the Gautam Adani-Hindenburg Research issue in Parliament and objected to the restrictions on screening the BBC documentary on Gujarat riots.

KCR was replying to the debate on the Appropriation Bill in the state assembly on Monday (February 13) when he made these comments. It was the last day of the state Budget session.

Referring to The Economist magazine’s report on the Gautam Adani issue being a test for Indian capitalism, KCR called the PM’s speech in Parliament “disgusting”.

“The Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) invested a lot in the company (Adani Group), and ever since the scam broke out, billions have evaporated. The nation was keen to know what the Centre would do on the Adani issue, but Modi skirted the topic in his speech. There was no assurance, no mention of constituting a committee,” KCR said.

“Frying pan to fire”

The BRS chief said by choosing the BJP over the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government headed by Manmohan Singh in 2014, the country had “fallen out of the frying pan, into the fire”.

“Former PM Manmohan Singh did a better job than Modi. He never boasted about his achievements and went about his job quietly. Yet, people voted for Modi, hoping that he would provide a much better rule, but it was like falling out of the frying pan, into the fire,” he said.

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He quoted from the book titled The Lost Decade by journalist Puja Mehra to point out that the nation had fared poorly across all sectors during the Modi regime, and the government has been bragging about successes it never achieved.

According to KCR, if the Manmohan Singh regime had continued, Telangana’s GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) would have gone up to Rs 16 lakh crore now instead of Rs 13 lakh crore. “The state had lost Rs 3 lakh crore because of the BJP’s inefficient rule,” he said.

“$5-trillion economy dream a joke”

The Telangana CM said the Modi government’s goal of achieving a $5-trillion economy for India by 2023-24 was a “joke”. “The $5-trillion-economy target is small in itself, but even that looks impossible now, as only $3.5 trillion has been achieved,” he said.

He argued that it’s the per-capita income of a country that reveals the true story, going on to point out that out of 192 countries, India was placed 139th in terms of per-capita income, while even Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka were ahead. “There should have been a debate on this in the Parliament, but the BJP bulldozes members from opposition parties,” he said.

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He claimed that more than 20 lakh people had relinquished Indian citizenship after Modi came to power. “Parents in our country celebrate when their children get Green Cards in the US. What do such trends indicate?” he asked.

“Indiscriminate privatisation”

KCR accused the Centre of allowing indiscriminate privatisation of public sector enterprises, alleging that it was encouraging “socialisation of losses and privatisation of profits.”

“Modi says the government has no business doing business. I say the government has every right to do business wherever required. The government has no business means it is escaping the responsibility entrusted in it by the people of India. We should share the responsibility,” he said.

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The Telangana CM, while stating that the BJP was not invincible, recalled that after the Bangladesh war, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was also hailed as invincible, but people dethroned the Congress as well. “Power is temporary and people will teach a fitting lesson to the BJP by voting it out,” he said.

Referring to the virtual ban on the BBC documentary on Modi and Gujarat riots, KCR said, “One should have patience and tolerance…We are at the mercy of people to come to power,” he said.

BJP reacts

BJP’s Telangana unit president Bandi Sanjay accused KCR of misusing the state assembly to insult the Prime Minister. “Tradition is that no member should comment against a person who is not a member of the House. But KCR deviated from it and hurled abuses at PM Modi,” he alleged.

Bandi Sanjay said the party was ready for a debate on what the Centre has done for Telangana and “how much money it had released” to the state compared with what the BRS government has done for the state in nine years.

(With agency inputs)