Bulldozer politics to divert attention from farmers’ protests, health crisis, rapes and murders

Using HYDRAA and its bulldozers, CM Revanth Reddy might be standing and feeling high on a pile of debris left by the demolitions, but what is slowly emerging from the dust left behind is a strategy to divert public attention from what is actually happening in Telangana.

Hyderabad: Using HYDRAA and its bulldozers, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy might be standing and feeling high on a pile of debris left by the demolitions, but what is slowly emerging from the dust left behind is a strategy to divert public attention from what is actually happening in Telangana.

Even as television news channels, YouTubers and the media devote more space and time to HYDRAA, what is not being given much of the prime time or space is the surging number of fevers, with the State facing a health crisis. What is not shown on screens are the tears of farmers who ran to banks on hearing Revanth Reddy’s speech before the elections last year to take loans, only to find themselves running to banks again to check why they did not get the promised loan waiver.

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What is not being counted is the number of increasing attacks on women and children, and also the gruesome murders, many of them with political overtones. What is being ignored are the continuing protests by the unemployed, whose frustrations were exploited by the same party before the elections, with the delay in recruitments rubbing in the salt further. What is being forgotten are the frequent power supply disruptions. Of course, that was not the government’s fault, but mischief by lizards and squirrels.

Most importantly, when the drama is all about HYDRAA, who is talking about the Six Guarantees now? And that, apparently, was what the bulldozers were for.

Nobody is asking whether the State government was depositing Rs.2,500 into bank accounts of all the women in the State. Nobody is talking about the Rs.4,000 monthly honorarium for the unemployed. Nobody is talking about how Rythu Bharosa is being delayed even as the crop season is nearing an end. There is no news on what happened to Dalit Bandhu. What about the Rs.500 bonus for paddy, or the Indiramma Indlu scheme, which was in fact launched and then forgotten. Remember the Warangal Rythu Declaration, the Chevella SC/ST Declaration, Minority Declaration or the Kamareddy BC Declaration?

The deteriorating law and order situation, the closing down of about 43 tribal welfare schools which were the only source of education for tribal children in remote and agency areas, the non-payment of salaries to several government employees and contract staff who keep the machinery running, all have been pushed under the carpet cleverly by the bulldozers.

By citing the Bhagavad Gita and taking Lord Krishna’s name while issuing notices to relatives and partymen, Revanth Reddy has used the attention diversion tactic with great effect. But how can he hide behind the bulldozers from questions on his poll promises remains to be seen.