Harish Rao slams Congress, BJP over Women’s Reservation Bill, Telangana remarks

BRS leader T Harish Rao accused the Congress and BJP of misleading women by linking reservation to delimitation. He also criticised Revanth Reddy’s silence on remarks about Telangana and demanded accountability from leaders over the issue

Jagtial: Former Minister and BRS Deputy Floor Leader T Harish Rao on Saturday accused both the Congress and the BJP of doing injustice to women by linking the Women’s Reservation Bill to delimitation, alleging that the two national parties were misleading the public.

Addressing the media here, he claimed that the “unholy nexus” between the Congress and the BJP had been exposed. He pointed out that while BJP leaders were calling for protests against Congress leaders, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy attended a breakfast meeting hosted by Union Minister Bhupathiraju Srinivasa Varma.

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“Is this the hybrid principle of Revanth Reddy? I fail to understand whether Congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi are following these cross-breed principles,” Harish Rao remarked.

Questioning the intent of both parties, he said that if they were genuinely committed to women’s reservation, the bill could have been implemented immediately. “Linking it to delimitation only delays justice. Both parties are enacting dramas and cheating women,” he alleged.

He recalled that the BRS government under K Chandrashekhar Rao’s leadership had passed a unanimous resolution in the first Telangana Assembly seeking reservation for women in legislatures and had forwarded it to the Centre.

Harish Rao criticised both parties for shifting blame over the bill’s fate in Parliament, with the Congress targeting the NDA government and the BJP blaming the Congress.

The former Minister also faulted the Chief Minister for not responding to remarks made by BJP MP Tejasvi Surya regarding the formation of Telangana. He alleged that Revanth Reddy was maintaining “strategic silence.”

“Revanth Reddy has not condemned Tejasvi Surya’s comments so far. Does he fear that ‘Bade Bhai’ might get angry?” he asked.

Condemning Surya’s comparison of Telangana’s formation with the India-Pakistan partition, Harish Rao termed it an insult to the self-respect of the people. He asserted that Telangana was formed constitutionally under Article 3 after a prolonged democratic struggle.

He also criticised Union Minister G Kishan Reddy for defending the remarks instead of condemning them and demanded an unconditional apology from the BJP.

Calling the silence of MPs from both Congress and BJP in Telangana “deeply disappointing,” he questioned why they had failed to uphold the State’s dignity in Parliament.

“BRS MPs in the Rajya Sabha strongly countered the misleading statements by Union Ministers and ensured corrections in official records,” he added.