Revanth Reddy hands BJP a political weapon with Kaleshwaram CBI probe

Telangana CM’s decision to hand over the Kaleshwaram project probe to the CBI has unsettled Congress ranks. Analysts see a BJP-Naidu hand, while the move risks backfiring politically and weakening Congress’s credibility in Telangana

Hyderabad: The enemy’s enemy is a friend. So goes the old proverb, one that is being played out in Telangana right now. While Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s announcement handing over the Kaleshwaram project probe to the CBI has sparked a storm within his own party, political analysts who have been watching Revanth Reddy are least surprised. The announcement, they feel, was not a sudden one emerging from Sunday’s heated debate in the Assembly, but one that was predetermined, and one that was not taken exactly in Telangana.

They point out how Revanth Reddy has for long been cosying up to the BJP, dropping enough hints that if they join hands, they could destroy the BRS. The role of his political mentor and Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu too is not being ruled out in getting the BJP-led Centre to help Revanth Reddy. This, political observers point out, is a huge opportunity for the BJP, which has for long been trying to corner the BRS. And that’s why the CBI probe is not an on-the-spot decision, but part of a larger conspiracy that goes beyond the walls of the Telangana Assembly, they insist.

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That is not all. It is emerging that the PC Ghose Commission report won’t stand scrutiny in a court of law, and for the same reason, the CBI is very unlikely even to have a cursory glance at it. While this raises questions on why such a Commission was then appointed, the move to bring in the CBI is slowly revealing the underlying permutations and combinations.

Political analysts here point out another possible calculation of the Revanth-Naidu-BJP combine. CBI probes are notoriously time-consuming, and in that context, a probe into Kaleshwaram, given the magnitude of the project, can drag on for years. The Ghose Commission itself took more than a year. Here is where the Centre’s recent 130th Constitutional amendment Bill, which allows removal of Chief Ministers and Ministers facing serious charges, factors in. With speculation that K Chandrashekhar Rao could return as Chief Minister of Telangana, Revanth Reddy has in fact handed over a weapon to the BJP-led Centre to wield against KCR, a weapon that Revanth too can use during the elections.

Knowing that an arrest of KCR or any top BRS leader can turn politically disastrous for him in Telangana, Revanth Reddy has also chosen a safe way out where he can now say it was not him, but a central agency controlled by the BJP.

Now for the storm within the Congress. The CBI probe has left the Congress leadership scrambling for answers. This stems from the Chief Minister’s declaration in the Assembly that “as the leader of the House, I will decide the course of action”.

Without referring the matter either to the Cabinet or seeking the Assembly’s approval (an irony since the Congress has accused KCR of the same thing in the Kaleshwaram case and KT Rama Rao in the Formula E Race), Revanth unilaterally announced that the case was being handed over to the CBI. This has raised uncomfortable questions that if the decision rested solely with him, what was the point of constituting the Commission or holding a discussion in the House, as AIMIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi sharply asked on Sunday.

The move also stands in stark contradiction to the Chief Minister’s own rhetoric. Just two days before the announcement, while speaking at a memorial meeting for CPI veteran Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy, Revanth Reddy had lashed out at the CBI, ED and Income Tax Department, accusing them of functioning as BJP’s political weapons. Congress Lok Sabha leader Rahul Gandhi also has famously termed these bodies as “Opposition Elimination Cells”. Yet, Revanth Reddy has now chosen the same CBI to investigate the Kaleshwaram project, a move that strengthens the theory of the decision being taken outside Telangana.

The opposition has all the same pounced on the contradiction. BRS working president KT Rama Rao described the move as political doublespeak aimed at maligning rivals, while bending to BJP’s tune. Even within Congress circles, there is unease over the lack of collective consultation, with senior leaders privately admitting that the Chief Minister’s unilateral action has undermined the Cabinet.

Further, Congress insiders appear to be wary of how the entire exercise kept faltering, from the party’s point of view, at different stages. The PC Ghose Commission presented no fresh evidence. Further, the Commission did not serve notices to the defendants as per the law, raising questions about its legality.

For the Congress, the gamble may have been intended to corner the BRS, but instead, it has boomeranged, denting the party’s credibility and leaving it to defend a decision it did not take. The BJP, whose Eatala Rajender and Bandi Sanjay Kumar have already welcomed the CBI probe, meanwhile looks content with how it has managed to get a powerful ticket back into Telangana’s political theatre.