Video: Rahul Gandhi is Modi’s biggest asset, Opposition’s heaviest burden, says KTR

At the IGNITION Summit in Chennai, BRS working president KT Rama Rao launched a sharp critique of both Congress and BJP, calling Rahul Gandhi “Narendra Modi’s greatest strength” and accusing the Congress of weakening the Opposition through poor leadership. He also attacked the BJP’s reliance on polarisation and unfulfilled promises, predicting rejection in southern states.

Hyderabad: In one of the sharpest indictments of the Congress leadership in recent times, Bharat Rashtra Samithi working president KT Rama Rao said Rahul Gandhi had single-handedly become ‘Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s greatest strength’ and ‘an albatross around the neck of the entire Indian opposition’.

Delivering the keynote at the Shiv Nadar Foundation’s high-profile IGNITION Summit under the theme ‘Rebooting the Republic’, moderated by journalist Shoma Chaudhury at Chennai, Rama Rao tore into both national parties while positioning regional forces as the only credible counterweight to the BJP.

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“Today, the single biggest asset Narendra Modi has is Rahul Gandhi himself,” Rama Rao said, stating that the Congress scion had zero long-term vision on critical areas like economy, employment generation, innovation, industrialisation or even infrastructure. “We have never heard Rahul Gandhi articulate a serious, coherent thought on any of these subjects,” he said, arguing that after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, the Congress had delivered nothing monumental for the country. On the contrary, Rahul Gandhi’s leadership had reduced the party to a complete failure as the principal Opposition.

“In states like Bihar, Congress behaves like a fringe or tail party but still demands hundreds of seats, only to split anti-BJP votes and hand victory to the ruling party on a platter,” he said, adding that the INDIA bloc was reduced to a name-only entity because no grand coalition could survive with the current Congress leadership at its helm. He recalled that BRS president K. Chandrashekhar Rao had once attempted to stitch together a federal front of strong regional parties to present a genuine alternative model to the country, but the initiative collapsed, an episode for which the Congress’s inability to play second fiddle was the reason.

No headway for BJP in South

Rama Rao made an equally scathing attack on the BJP. “The BJP has mastered the art of polarisation. Their narrative brilliantly revolves only around Pakistan, Bangladesh, Hindus vs Muslims, never beyond that,” he said, reminding the audience of the unfulfilled 2014 promise of a house for every Indian by 2022.

“Eleven years on, what have they actually delivered except divisive politics in every household?” He also admitted a bitter truth. “We in the Opposition have failed to expose and counter this divisive politics effectively.”

Predicting a southern rejection of the BJP, he saluted Tamil Nadu for its resistance against Delhi’s overreach and expressed confidence that West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Kerala would deliver stinging verdicts against the saffron party in the coming elections.

Turning to Telangana, he painted a grim picture of the last two years under the Congress government. “Telangana was the fastest-growing State with the highest per-capita income, turned from the 12th largest paddy producer to No.1, built the world’s largest lift irrigation project in the form of Kaleshwaram, and made Hyderabad a global IT rival to Bengaluru. All that in ten years… Today, in just two years, Hyderabad and Telangana’s GDP is dipping sharply. Established systems have been deliberately disrupted. Policy arbitrariness and corruption are the new normal,” he said.

Quoting Thomas Paine on how the primary duty of every patriot was to save the people from their own government, Rama Rao said that day had come for Telangana.

“People now need protection from the State government itself,” he said, slamming the Congress’s ‘420 unrealistic guarantees’ and the six guarantees that had crippled the State’s finances for the downturn, while asserting that the previous BRS regime had placed strong institutions above individuals and delivered promises through systematic governance.

On the perennial charge of dynastic politics levelled against him, Rama Rao was dismissive.

“Family background may open the door to politics, but only people’s mandate every five years keeps you inside. The BJP screams about dynasty yet forms opportunistic alliances with family-run parties like the Shiv Sena, TDP, JD(U), whenever it suits them. That is pure political opportunism.”

On technology and AI

Highlighting how the BRS government had laid the foundation for an innovation ecosystem in Telangana with initiatives like T-Works, India’s largest prototyping centre, he said policies were made to embrace AI, FinTech, HealthTech, and Pharma-Tech. He warned that AI’s short-term disruption to jobs would soon give way to massive new opportunities, but stressed the urgent need to overhaul engineering curricula to produce industry-ready graduates.

Drawing a stark contrast with China, he said 40 years ago, India and China were at the same level.

“China made the economy its top priority. India made politics its top priority. That is why China is miles ahead and India is still not doing justice to its immense potential,” he said, also dismissing slogans like ‘double-engine sarkar’.

“In Delhi we actually have four engines, but two are powering off and one is missing completely.”

He concluded by reiterating that political parties need unitary leadership and institutional resilience rather than individual whims. “We promised delivery within 15 days through a single-window system. We built institutions that the political class could not tamper with. That is the model India needs,” he said.