Telangana has been singled out for high-octane political bullying and a virtual financial siege laid on the State by the Centre.
By JR Janumpalli
The Munugode byelection on November 3 is set to create a record in spending money, going by reports and the present tendency of elections, particularly byelections.
All three – two national parties and the ruling TRS – have locked horns in a fierce battle for a prestigious win. The Congress wants to retain its seat, proving it is a censure for the betrayal of its candidate, and also that it is its stronghold. The BJP wants to wrest the seat to advertise its intending rise in the State. The TRS wants to take revenge on the BJP for the byelection debacles in Huzurabad and Dubbaka and cut short the brouhaha of its rise in the State.
Malafide Intentions
The very exigency of the byelection is questionable. The incumbent candidate resigned from the Congress and triggered a byelection for the express purpose of joining the BJP and becoming the candidate of the BJP in the election to give the party a chance of challenging the TRS. Rajgopal Reddy’s resignation and joining the BJP may be right in letter but not in spirit. The malafide intentions are very clear.
Of course, the BJP has made such elections the new normal. If we see the happenings in the last eight years, in 10-12 States the BJP won elections by manipulating governments, with splits, links and several other dubious means. Winning elections or forming governments by hook or crook has become more important than ethics and democracy. The whole atmosphere is so vitiated, nobody knows who is in which party and which party is in power in the States at a given point. It is so ephemeral that it can change in just days, though the legislators” or State governments’ tenure is supposed to be for five years. In comparison, similar shenanigans by the Congress earlier now look like small-time plays.
In the grand scheme of saffronisation of India, the BJP has been assiduously working on the spread of it in the States since 2014. In the case of Telangana (TS), which too came into existence in 2014, though the BJP supported the statehood during the campaign, it was on the fence in the end. In the deciding moments in Parliament, it almost backtracked but a section of the party prevented it. Narendra Modi and his Home Minister Amit Shah both have found fault with the method of formation of the new State and openly said it in Parliament and outside of it. They were partial to residual Andhra Pradesh for political reasons.
Centre’s Harassments
In the first term, the Modi government was acting neutral with the TS government to get support for its Bills in Parliament. As its position became comfortable in the Rajya Sabha, it started keeping TS government at an arm’s length. By the end of the first term, the divide increased. The BJP won 4 MP seats in the State in the 2019 elections. This stoked its ambition and it started targeting TS, politically and economically, for its saffronisation scheme. There were electoral raids on the State in the shape of interim elections. Its somewhat improved performance in these elections encouraged it to increase the intensity of its turf war. The local BJP leadership was encouraged to make an all-out effort to tarnish the image of the TRS with repeated unfounded allegations.
The BJP started applying financial squeeze on TS. Many projects slated for TS were diverted to other States. There were inordinate delays in releasing the regular funds and grants from the Centre. No central funds as recommended by the national institutions were sanctioned to the State. It refused to reimburse the rice procurement cost causing a very heavy financial burden to the State. It also caused trouble in granting permission for loans even within the agreed FRBM limits. Virtually, a financial siege was laid on TS by the Centre. Even for the projects earlier cleared and appreciated, problems are being created deliberately, affecting their progress or completion.
TS was singled out for high-octane political bullying. The BJP national executive meeting was conducted in Hyderabad and the whole of the BJP pantheon descended on the city in a big ostentatious show of strength. National BJP leaders were allotted to all the 119 constituencies for canvassing and local leaders were primed and allowed to make increased propaganda on the fictitious misrule and failure of economic development in the State. But all this did not work.
As if it was not enough, the BJP raked up Hyderabad State integration day on September 17, not celebrated for 60 years for several political reasons. The BJP taking advantage of the Hindu-Muslim element involved in it, tried to cause religious strife in the State. Regrettably, the Home Minister who is supposed to be the keeper of peace of the nation led the attempt. A Hyderabad liberation day was organised in Hyderabad presided over by the Home Minister, against the three-day State National Integration Day. Deservedly, the ulterior attempt failed miserably. The whole State celebrated National Integration Day with the spirit of nationality. Muslim political outfits and the Muslim population too joined the celebration exhibiting a great spirit of nationalism.
Undemocratic
Not making any headway, the BJP invented a new subterfuge in foisting the byelection in Munugode to keep the TRS and the TS government in a quandary. The idea is to win a byelection before the ensuing general elections and show the TRS in a poor light to make inroads into the State. It is a strange political thought. Politically bullying a State, squeezing it financially and trying to create religious strife are very undemocratic. And now foisting a false byelection to win over the State is a manifestly wrong political practice. In fact, the Munugode byelection is electoral fraud.
Here, the incumbent Congress legislator is made to resign and join the BJP to force the byelection. And he becomes the official candidate of the BJP in the seat vacated by himself. It is an open secret that he was given a Rs 18,000-21,000-crore contract for a project by the central government in a quid pro quo for enacting this fraud. It is reported that the candidate himself has vouchsafed it in public. There cannot be any more damning proof of perfidy than this.
It is unbecoming of the Centre to allow such electoral fraud. After all, India is a democracy and the largest democracy in the world, not a banana republic.