KTR tears into Rahul Gandhi, Revanth Reddy over caste survey: ‘Newfound zeal rings hollow'
K Kavitha, on 8 July, urged the Union government to act quickly, warning that the protest could continue indefinitely if demands are not met. She also claimed that the caste survey done in Congress-ruled state was "flawed".
BRS MLA KT Rama Rao, in an interview with LiveMint reiterated his sister's statements and hit out at the caste survey conducted by the Revanth Reddy-led Congress government in Telangana. .
The SEEEPC data is unscientific, inaccurate, and incomplete. The complete survey was not tabled in the Assembly and when we brought it up, it was diverted to some cheap comments, the real discussion never happened. The detailed survey is not available on the government portal. They spent more than Rs150 crores and 50 days and there are wide gaps, many unanswered questions.
The government themselves agreed that they managed to collect 96 percent data. Even if we go by their numbers, at least 16 lakh people were excluded.
The 42 percent BC numbers that Revanth Reddy now speaks about is inadequate to say the least.
There is no concrete answer on BC subcategorization. What is BC reservation when there is no subcategorization? How will you determine the actual reservation percentage to each caste. What is the percentage of reservation from this 42 percent to Mudirajus or Munnurukapus or Gouds or the many other castes? Without a clear BC subcategorization, tomorrow you will create an animosity between various BC castes. Hence, I say this government flounders in a quagmire of incompetence.
After BRS came to power, on 2014 August 19, entire Telangana stayed home to voluntarily participate in the Samagra Kutumbha Survey. We finished the entire data collection process in one single day. All the policy decisions were based on the data from this survey.
Let me say this clearly, for Congress, this is nothing but a pure political requirement for their electoral existence. Rahul Gandhi's sanctimonious posturing as a champion of social justice, while his party's actions betray the BCs through a census riddled with errors speaks volumes of their intent.
For a leader who remained silent on a national caste census during Congress's decades in power, his newfound zeal rings hollow.
Despite exploiting the 'Kamareddy BC Declaration' for electoral mileage, the Congress government has utterly failed the very community it solemnly pledged to uplift. Nearly two years have elapsed, yet not a single commitment to the Backward Classes has been fulfilled.
Last week, in a cabinet meeting they hastily announced that there will be a 42 percent BC reservation. Anyone with the basic legal knowledge, can see through their lies.
There is not a single discussion so far held by the Congress government to have a solid plan in place so that this 42 percent BC reservation does not get caught in a legal quagmire. What are they doing about the 1992 Indra Sawhney Supreme Court judgement. This hastily scripted ordinance pushed through under the cloak of urgency is nothing but another deception.
If Rahul Gandhi genuinely stands for social justice, let him ensure his party honours its own blueprint. If Chief Minister Revanth Reddy is sincere, let him lead an indefinite protest in Delhi to secure constitutional sanction. If the Congress continues to renege on its BC Declaration, it will face a fierce democratic reckoning when the local body elections arrive.
The BRS does not operate in the realm of tokenism. We will ensure that Congress delivers the promised 42 percent reservation.
This regime suffers from a chronic deficit of originality. Over the past 20 months, What the people are witnessing is not innovation, but a shallow imitation. Most initiatives paraded as 'new' are nothing more than diluted rebrands of programmes conceived, funded, and executed during BRS's decade of governance.
Congress ministers are busy cutting ribbons on our legacy – such as flyovers built under SRDP and shamelessly claiming credit for what they did not create.
More troubling is the systematic erasure of Telangana's cultural identity. The proposal to remove Kakatiya Kala Thoranam and Charminar from the state emblem, and the audacious replacement of Telangana Thalli with a Congress Thalli, is a calculated attempt to distort our history.
Let me address this critique head-on. The notion that BRS prioritised Rythu Bandhu at the expense of long-term investments is not only factually incorrect, it is intellectually dishonest.
We infused ₹ 73,000 crore directly into farmers' accounts across 11 crop seasons without bureaucratic hurdles, without discrimination. To suggest that this came at the cost of education, healthcare, or infrastructure is to ignore the transformative footprint BRS left across sectors during our tenure. In education, we expanded residential schools, launched Mana Ooru–Mana Badi, revamped thousands of government schools, established new Intermediate and Degree colleges.
In healthcare, Telangana became the only state in India with a government medical college in every district. We built Basthi Dawakhanas for urban primary care, upgraded district hospitals, and introduced KCR Kits to reduce maternal and infant mortality.
In Hyderabad, we initiated construction of three TIMS super-specialty hospitals in strategic directions of the city designed to decentralize advanced medical care for the urban poor. In Warangal, we envisioned and executed the state's largest government hospital: a super-specialty institution equipped with modular operation theatres and infection-controlled infrastructure, a corporate-level facility in public hands.
On the infrastructure front, from Mission Bhagiratha to Kaleshwaram Project, from rural roads to urban flyovers, Telangana witnessed an infrastructure renaissance unmatched by any newly formed state. This transformative wave also encompassed the construction of collectorate complexes, the iconic new State Secretariat Building and globally acclaimed innovation hubs like T-Hub and T-Works, each a testament to Telangana's commitment to administrative excellence and entrepreneurial ambition.
Rythu Bandhu was one pillar of a multi-sectoral development strategy that resulted in increased cultivated area and the rise in paddy production to 3 crore tonnes.
Under KCR garu's leadership, Telangana witnessed the highest per capita income in the country and a 238% surge in Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) since 2014, with the state contributing 5% to the national GDP. We didn't just support farmers , we built world-class irrigation infrastructure, expanded IT exports from ₹ 56,000 crore to ₹ 2.41 lakh crore, and positioned Hyderabad as a global tech hub. We ensured universal access to potable water across rural Telangana, an achievement unparalleled in scale and execution.
For far too long, decades of successive central and state administrations, helmed by the Congress and BJP respectively, have reduced marginalised communities to mere electoral commodities. Their vote bank politics left most of the population in cycles of poverty even after seven and a half decades after our nation's independence.
It was the BRS government, under the visionary leadership of KCR garu, that dared to break this cycle of systemic neglect with the path-breaking Dalit Bandhu scheme. This pioneering initiative provided a substantial financial grant of ₹ 10 lakh directly to Scheduled Caste families, specifically designed to empower an entire generation and propel them towards enduring economic independence, thereby fostering a cascading positive impact on subsequent generations.
In stark contrast, the current Congress government, after 20 months at the helm, has not only failed to deliver on its grandiloquent promise of ₹ 12 lakh under its rechristened scheme for the same communities, not a single beneficiary has received the pledged amount, but has also perversely obstructed the ongoing implementation of Dalit Bandhu.
Let me reiterate: our politics is not about symbolism, it is about systemic change. And marginalised communities will remain at the heart of our vision for Telangana's next chapter.
We will ensure representation across all tiers, from gram panchayats to urban local bodies, guaranteeing that Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, minorities, a decisive voice. At the same time, we will take measures for systematic economic upliftment, ensuring that caste-based occupational clusters are not left behind in the digital economy. Our focus will be on entrepreneurship incubation, access to capital, and market linkages... especially for youth and women from these marginalised sections.
Let there be no ambiguity, Telangana is not merely our political commitment, it is our emotional inheritance. It's our cultural spine and our existential anchor. The BRS remains unequivocally tethered to the aspirations of the people and the destiny of our state.
We are vigorously rebuilding our organizational apparatus and mobilizing cadre across constituencies to expose the Congress regime's hollow promises and chronic ineptitude. We are spearheading issue-based campaigns rooted in lived realities. The BRS will never allow the soul of Telangana to be bartered for fleeting optics or Delhi-scripted narratives.
Congress with all their fake promises and white lies came to power in Telangana. Today, the government here is neither autonomous, nor dedicated. They are abusing the state to fulfil their national ambition of making Rahul Gandhi the Prime Minister.
Rahul Gandhi speaks aggressively about bulldozer-raaj in BJP states but is silent about the bulldozer destruction in Telangana by Hydra. The entire world took a stance on University of Hyderabad's midnight green murder. Rahul Gandhi never uttered a word.
The people of Telangana have not forgotten the 420 promises, fake guarantees and hollow declarations made during the Assembly and Parliament campaigns. Nor have they forgiven the parade of Congress heavyweights who descended upon Telangana for photo ops and vanished the moment ballots were cast. Their absence is not just physical, it is moral.
It is shameful that the Congress regime in Telangana has turned governance into a marketplace of commissions and kickbacks. For the first time in the history, Contractors staged a dharna in the secretariate saying they cannot pay 20 percent commission for bill clearances. Such shame!
While the Prime Minister and Home Minister repeatedly visit Telangana and thunder that the state has become an 'ATM for Congress' alleging the collection of an RR tax, one must ask the obvious: If the central government is indeed aware of rampant corruption, why hasn't it ordered a probe through national investigative agencies?
The truth is glaring - Revanth Reddy and the BJP are hand in glove. They lack the strength to take on the BRS independently and have resorted to an unholy backroom alliance to silence the only credible and courageous voice of Telangana, the BRS.
Two and a half decades ago, the BRS was born not in the pursuit of political power, but as a resolute people's movement. People of Telangana will always be the heart and soul of this party. We are and we will be wholly dedicated to uphold the wishes of the people, their intrinsic rights and to demand the cherished pride of our land.
We were never mere political convenience. Whether steering the state from the helm of governance or now, in our role as a vigilant opposition, our unwavering commitment to the aspirations of four crore Telangana citizens remains absolute and eternal.
So, it is not a transition but a mere transfer of power, which is nothing but the crux of any democracy. We were born out people's needs, we were given a change to shape the future of the state, not once but twice. And today we sit in the opposition, fighting for rights and identity of people of Telangana.
The core will remain, how we will do it has slightly changed.
After two successful terms, what happened during 2023 Assembly elections is not an earth- shattering defeat. Yes, we lost…but by a mere 1.9% margin. Call it administrative fatigue or may be mild anti-incumbency…but not an outright rejection of BRS.
One very pertinent aspect we realized during the internal surveys was we somehow failed to communicate our work efficiently. Over the last few years, elections are not being fought on real development, they are driven by political narratives peddled on WhatsApp. When these narratives are pushed repeatedly, even the most unrealistic piece of information becomes a gospel.
Let me give you a small but a very significant example. There was a story that was pushed on social media platforms that KCR garu's official residence Pragathi Bhavan had bulletproof bathrooms. We laughed it off, did not even think of countering it. But this story developed a life of its own. Today deputy CM Bhatti Vikramarka lives in the same residence. I dare them to ask if Bhatti's official residence has bullet-proofed washrooms now. Another lore is about KCR garu's thousands of acres sprawling 'farmhouse'! They went on to call him a 'farmhouse CM'.
KCR garu who is a farmer at heart loves to continue his farming activities, he in his ten years of tenure never put the state's development and progress on the backburner.
Today, CM Revanth Reddy who drilled these fake narratives lives in a palatial palace in Jubilee Hills.
He does all his meetings at his house. Can we call him the 'Palace CM'?
KCR garu's image was tarnished time and again in social media. We were too busy in administration that we never bothered about what was getting circulated in social media. When we brought it up with KCR garu, he simply asked us to focus on work, he believed everything was noise.
Yes, there were minor administrative gaps. But mostly it was fake news that projected us to look like anti-people. We are working on all the feedback that we are getting now. Today, in less than two years since we lost power, there is a undeniable support for KCR garu and BRS. People openly talk about how Congress cheated them with fake promises of two-wheelers, one tula gold and what not.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New Indian Express
19 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
No regrets on entering politics, says MP Shashi Tharoor
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Congress MP and author Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said he neither regretted entering politics, nor had any intention of quitting it. He was responding to a question at an event where he was honoured with the P Kesavadev Literary Award. 'Not at all,' he said when asked whether he ever regretted entering politics. 'In politics, you can make decisions and implement policies that impact millions. That is the true power of politics. I have no intention to quit, unless age forces me to,' he said. Diabetologist Dr Banshi Saboo was conferred with the P Kesavadev Diabscreen Kerala Award at the event organised by the P Kesavadev Trust. Filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan presented the awards. He commended Dr Saboo for his work in diabetes care and awareness and congratulated Tharoor on his literary accomplishments, particularly his works about India. Tharoor praised author Kesavadev and his contribution in elevating the literary landscape by highlighting the lives of ordinary people. Dr Saboo spoke about type 1 diabetes in children and advocated for introducing health science as a subject in schools. Dr Jothydev Kesavadev, actor Maniyanpillai Raju and dignitaries attended.
New Indian Express
19 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
Let 2026 election be fought on people's wealth
The promised downward revision of prices of Jaguar and Johnnie Walker is barely a hot topic of discussion as the absence of tomato in rasam and of coconut in chutneys these days. For the EMI-trapped generation, the fall in interest rate still tops the list. On the other side, people from the bottom of the pyramid, which shrinks only when the cutoff is raised for political convenience, are more bothered about their daily bread. Your personal income may be rising slowly in pure numbers but persistently shrinking in value and in what it can afford to buy for you. What is heartening now is that some governments have begun to talk about putting more money in the hands of people; the promise of repatriating black money from Swiss banks and sharing the booty with common people has outlived its utility and died. Some promises are meant to perish as empty promises. So be it. When a government makes a serious effort at bringing in investments, taps the inherent potential for revenue growth, and spreads the message of social welfare to help people escape the poverty trap, it is the first baby step towards heralding economic progress. Tamil Nadu has taken the lead to announce to the world that the per capita income (at constant prices) has jumped to nearly Rs 2 lakh, making it the second-highest in India, just behind Karnataka's Rs 2.05 lakh. A balanced economic model, robust infrastructure, and skilled workforce have been the key drivers. TN's economic growth at 9.69% in 2024-25, the highest in India, has surely given it a push. If BJP wants to take pride in the rise in national per capita income (at constant prices) to Rs 1.15 lakh in 2024-25, up from Rs 72,805 in 2014-15, it ought to thank the southern states. Karnataka, TN, and Telangana have topped the chart, helping the national average to record an impressive 58% growth in the last 11 years, while the growth in BJP-ruled states is nothing to write home about.
Scroll.in
19 minutes ago
- Scroll.in
Why a court ban on encrypted email service Proton Mail has sparked digital privacy fears
A two-judge bench of the Karnataka High Court is now hearing a challenge filed by Proton AG, the Swiss company that runs the encrypted email service, Proton Mail. On April 29, a single judge of the high court had directed the Union government to block the service in India, setting off a wave of criticism from digital rights advocates. Many of them told Scroll that the court's ban set a dangerous precedent that threatens the privacy of whistle-blowers, activists, journalists, and others who rely on encryption for more secure communications. They said the court had erred in blaming encryption for Proton's alleged non-cooperation with the Karnataka police in its investigation into online harassment by anonymous culprits through its email service. What did the High Court order say? The case began when a Bengaluru-based organisation approached the High Court after some of its female employees were subjected to prolonged online harassment. The company received a torrent of emails from two Proton Mail accounts containing obscene and abusive content, including morphed images of the employees. The company filed a police complaint and reached out to Proton Mail's abuse team. While Proton disabled the offending accounts, it could not provide the company personally identifiable details of the sender of the mail. This is because, it informed the company, under Swiss law, it could only disclose user data upon receiving a formal legal request from Swiss authorities through established international cooperation channels. The police investigation hit a similar wall. The police told the court that they could not identify the culprit through the mutual legal assistance arrangements between India and Switzerland. However, the judgment didn't clarify what specific steps were taken or where those efforts stalled. Nevertheless, Justice M Nagaprasanna took a stern view of the matter in his judgment. Describing the situation as a 'menace', he noted that Proton Mail had also been used to send bomb threats to schools and even to the Chief Minister of Karnataka. 'The State machinery [is] hamstrung by the absence of enforceable cooperation from Proton AG,' Nagaprasanna observed. 'This Court fails to understand the complacency of the Union of India in not taking action towards blocking the Proton Mail…' Concluding that the court could not remain a 'mute spectator', the judge directed the Union government to initiate proceedings to block Proton Mail in India under the Information Technology Act. 'Troubling precedent' As of July 25, Proton Mail was still accessible in India. While the court's intent to protect the victims of harassment is clear, technology lawyers and digital rights advocates raised concerns about the order's sweeping nature and its wider implications. They argue that blocking an entire service used by many for the criminal acts of a few is a disproportionate response that could undermine digital security for everyone. The order 'sets a troubling precedent,' said Raman Jit Singh Chima, Asia Pacific Policy Director at Access Now, a digital civil rights organisation. 'It signals that entire encrypted services can be taken down based on allegations linked to a handful of users.' A ban could lead to a domino effect, warned Apar Gupta, lawyer and founder director of the Internet Freedom Foundation. 'Other encrypted platforms could face pressure to weaken their security or risk being blocked,' he explained. 'This approach may inadvertently chill free expression, as journalists, activists and at-risk communities who rely on encrypted communications for safety might feel less secure.' This view was echoed by technology lawyer and online civil liberties activist Mishi Choudhary. 'In today's day of heightened cyber security issues and surveillance, privacy-protecting technologies are more crucial than ever,' she said. Blocking Proton Mail would not eliminate online abuse either, said technologist and interdisciplinary researcher Rohini Lakshané. 'Malicious actors can simply migrate to other encrypted email providers or deploy additional anonymisation techniques,' she said. The fear is that the High Court's order could give cover to authorities to take a heavy-handed approach towards any platform that offers privacy. 'This move will embolden the bureaucracy and the political powers to act first and think later,' cautioned Tanveer Hasan, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society, an internet and digital technologies research organisation. As Choudhary noted, 'India cannot be a destination that issues blocking orders at the drop of a hat if investigative authorities aren't able to access some data.' Gupta warned that the order would create legal uncertainty for overseas service providers. 'Those in jurisdictions with strict privacy laws could be caught between home-country obligations and Indian court demands, deterring them from offering services in India,' he said. Encryption versus user identification A key point of contention is the court's conflation of the protection of a message's content with the ability to identify a user. The court identified encryption as a factor for the police's failed investigation – without explaining how. Encrypted services like Proton Mail are prevented from seeing the content of messages sent on their platforms, but may still access user metadata, such as internet protocol address – a unique alphanumerical identifier assigned to each computer connected to the internet – from which an account was created or accessed. Nikhil Narendran, a partner at the law firm Trilegal, argued that the ban was based on a misunderstanding of the technology 'Encryption only protects the content of a message but does not prevent a receiver or sender from disclosing it wilfully,' he explained. 'It also doesn't prevent a company from disclosing user information once the content is disclosed.' This metadata can be a crucial tool for law enforcement to trace the origin of a criminal act. In 2021, Proton Mail handed over the internet protocol address of French Proton Mail users to the French police upon an order by the Swiss government. 'So, the idea that Proton Mail is immune to legal process is simply not true,' Chima said. Sharveya Parasnis, a journalist at the technology policy portal Medianama, questioned the court's invocation of encryption. 'I don't know if the case is about encryption as much as it is about the obligation of foreign companies to comply with Indian law enforcement requests for user data,' he said. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 mandate that online platforms 'enable the identification' of anyone communicating through the platform upon a government or court order. The right way forward? Experts pointed out that a blanket ban failed the three-part test for restricting fundamental rights laid down by the Supreme Court in its landmark privacy judgment in 2018. Any restriction must be lawful, necessary and, crucially, proportionate. 'Here, less intrusive options clearly existed,' Chima said. He and other experts Scroll spoke with argued that instead of resorting to bans, Indian authorities should strengthen and use existing legal channels. India and Switzerland are both signatories to a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, a formal mechanism for requesting and obtaining evidence for criminal investigations. The treaty should be reformed 'so investigators can lawfully obtain data in a timely manner,' suggested Gupta. 'Regulators can also establish clear, transparent protocols for engaging with encrypted services based abroad, and even update outdated agreements to address modern cybercrime.' Rahul Narayan, a partner at the law firm Chandhiok & Mahajan who has expertise in privacy and data protection, batted for more legislative clarity in such situations. 'Precise parameters for when a service may be blocked should be laid down in a legislation, rather than decided on an ad-hoc basis by courts,' he said.
