Is it an irony or the outcome of a well-thought plan? KCR’s daughter Kavitha after becoming an MP in 2014 spoke on issues of national importance such as India’s defence budget, LOC and Kashmir.
Needless to say, those comments were highly contrarian to prevailing sentiment and angered the nationalists.
For instance, Kavitha said that Kashmir and Telangana were happy, independent nations before being forcibly annexed to the Indian Union.
For that matter, the whole of India was divided then into separate kingdoms before Sardar Patel integrated them all into the motherland.
Similarly, Kavitha said the money being spent on the defence budget of Kashmir should be diverted to other development activities and LOC should be made a permanent border. This might be practical advice to some but is not consistent with the self-respect of the nation.
Will a person abandon his parents and divert the money being spent on them to buy a new washing machine or air conditioner? Practical, isn’t it?
Five years down the line since she made those comments, is it a surprise that Kavitha was defeated in her own constituency of Nizamabad by a BJP candidate?
The poor thing is apparently so shell-shocked at her defeat that she is hardly making any public appearances nowadays. Her last appearance was when she offered Bonalu at the Mahankali temple.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t play the ‘anti-Andhra card’ again, five years after Telangana was created.
In 2019, had Chandrababu Naidu not made an appearance in Telangana, one wonders what the outcome might have been? In 2024, though, it will only be the plank of ‘development’ that KCR can bank on.
The Congress and Kodandaram have proved to be unsuccessful in exposing the limitation of KCR’s reign to the Telangana public. The major challenge will therefore be from the BJP.
KCR got TV9 and Andhra Jyothi banned and his son speaks about ‘freedom of speech’ and other nonsense.
KCR said that BJP is not a force to reckon with; an idiotic statement given that his own daughter was routed in her constituency.
The BJP’s ideology of Hindutva cut across regional lines and appeals to the Hindu voter directly.
The MIM keeps making derogatory statements regularly and not a single TRS leader speaks out against them.
The BJP on the other hand has been quick to retaliate and threaten the MIM brigade and Akbaruddin with dire consequences.
Yogi Adityanath even went to the extent of saying that the Owaisi brothers will have to flee Hyderabad like the Nizam if the BJP comes to power in the State. Naturally, all this is appealing to the Hindu population.
Therefore, if the TRS think that Amit Shah and Modi are not a force to be taken seriously, it will be doing so at its own peril.
After all, this is a Party which formed the government in Kashmir and Tripura, of all places.
(The author is a senior journalist. Views are personal)