Central government tries to blame Telangana, finds itself in hot waters gets counter attack

Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal’s attempts at hiding behind a veneer of satire to run down the TRS government on the paddy procurement issue on Thursday is bound to boomerang on the BJP government at the Centre. Describing the Telangana government as anti-farmers was probably the ultimate faux pas that the union Minister could have committed, given the fact that farmers from across the country have been demanding implementation of the pro-farmers policies adopted by the TRS government.

The unsavoury episode began with the Ministerial delegation led by Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy calling on the union Minister to put forth Telangana’s case on procurement including the Centre purchasing all the paddy produced in the State on par with other States like Punjab and Haryana. The meeting, appointment for which was given by Goyal after making the delegation wait for 48 hours, did not go well.

The union Minister sought to score political brownie points by convening a press conference hurriedly after the meeting where he criticised the Telangana government for trying to blame the Centre in the paddy procurement row. The Centre, he said, was not discriminating between States in paddy procurement and that it would procure only raw rice from Telangana during the ensuing Rabi (Yasangi) season. He also claimed that Telangana, on being asked to the quantity of raw rice that the State would supply, failed to respond unlike all other States.

Stating that the Centre was ready to procure as much raw rice the State could supply, he said: “We have no discrimination against Telangana. Like all other States, we are ready to procure raw rice from Telangana and the paddy is being purchased through the Food Corporation of India (FCI) as per the agreement.” he said. He went on to add that the Telangana government had “completely failed in paddy procurement and was spreading false propaganda against the Centre to cover up its failure.”

“Farmers of Telangana are being misled. The Chandrashekhar Rao government is anti-farmers and is turning the farmers’ issue into a political slugfest,” he said of a Telangana that is the only government to implement novel and farmer-friendly initiatives like



Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bima, free 24×7 quality power supply to the farm sector and completion of major irrigation projects such as Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme.

In a strong counter subsequently, Niranjan Reddy launched a scathing attack on union Ministers as well as the Central government. “The BJP leadership has no humane approach towards farmers and is looking at agriculture only from the business perspective,” he said, and slammed the Centre’s approach and Piyush Goyal’s arrogant attitude towards the issue.

“Due to this attitude, the BJP government suffered a defeat at the hands of the agitating farmers and apologised. The day will surely come when they will have to apologise to the farmers in Telangana. Rather than addressing the farmers’ problems, they are trying to divert the issue due to their arrogance and callousness,” Niranjan Reddy said. He advised the Centre to convene a meeting of agriculture experts and Chief Ministers to address the issue.

The Minister reminded that the State government successfully convinced farmers to reduce paddy cultuivation which they obliged and brought down the paddy cultivation from 56 lakh acres to 36 lakh acres. However, he pointed out that the BJP Telangana leaders were trying to gain political mileage by provoking farmers to increase paddy cultivation which was against national interest.

Niranjan Reddy said if was the Centre’s responsibility to purchase paddy, and that the Minimum Support Price (MSP) was being paid for paddy and not rice. “In the case of wheat, the Centre does not procure ‘Atta’. Similarly, they can procure paddy and get it milled as per their requirement. Why are they insisting that we get it milled and supply only raw rice?” he questioned.

On being called as an anti-farmer government, he slammed the union Minister and said: “Unlike any other State, Telangana government is supplying irrigation water, uninterrupted and free power apart from Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bima among others to encourage farm operations on a large scale. Are these the reasons for terming us an anti-farmers’ government?” He said the State government will come up with an action plan as per directions of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on the issue.