You privatise, we will nationalise, KCR tells attacking at Modi

Firing one salvo after the other against the Narendra Modi-led Central government in his first speech after the formal launch of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, party president and Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao declared that the BRS was for nationalisation as against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s policy of privatisation.

Revealing the party’s plans for the country, right from complete power supply coverage across India within two years, free power to farmers and Dalit Bandhu financial assistance to 25 lakh families every year across the country, Chandrashekhar Rao challenged Modi to go ahead with his moves to privatise public sector units like the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and the Life Insurance Corporation of India.

Whatever the BJP privatised, the BRS would reclaim when it came to power in the country, he said.

Stating that the BRS was not formed for a community or a region or a State, but with the aim of achieving a bright future for India, Rao said the party would strive to bring a qualitative change for people-centric governance at the national level. “BRS is for India,” he announced to a cheering crowd at the Telangana Bhavan on Monday after inducting several leaders from Andhra Pradesh into the party fold.

Questioning why farmers were not getting water or power supply when an adequate supply of both was possible, Chandrashekhar Rao said this was the question BRS was raising. If voted to power, the BRS would extend the Dalit Bandhu scheme across the country, ensuring financial assistance to 25 lakh families every year at a cost of Rs 2.5 lakh crore. The BRS would also ensure power supply across the country within two years, ensuring a ‘velugu jilugula Bharat’ (a shining and glittering India), and free power to the farming community at an expenditure of Rs 1.45 lakh crore per annum, he said, validating his promise by pointing out that as of now, only half of India’s installed power capacity of 4.1 lakh MW was being utilised in the country.

“Why should people suffer despite having all the resources? If



the Central government is sincere, it can supply water to each of the 41 crore lakh acres of uncultivated land by utilising available water resources. We have water wars due to bad water policy and power shortage due to bad power policy of the Centre,” he said.

Lamenting that despite having abundant natural and human resources, India was lagging behind in terms of progress when compared to neighbouring countries like China and Singapore, Chandrashekhar Rao said. India did not make a desirable change in the last seven decades as politics was increasingly becoming election-centric rather than people-centric. India was suffering as it lost its institutional approach and was working with an individual-centric approach, without a common goal preventing its progress. “Winning elections has become the ultimate agenda for political parties which are opting shortcuts by spreading lies, stoking communal hatred, spending money and other tactics, for temporary gains. No section of society is happy. We must end this,” he declared.

Chandrashekhar Rao also announced that the BRS would start its operations in at least eight States including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Haryana among others after Sankranti and said the groundwork was already on to form State-wise committees, with several sitting legislators and MPs, including in Andhra Pradesh, showing keen interest to join the BRS. Committees would be set up in every Assembly constituency in the country and in every panchayat as well. Huge influx of leaders from different parties was expected after the party agenda was unveiled shortly, he said.

The Chief Minister reiterated that the BRS’ agenda was not coming to power overnight or dethroning someone, but a bright future for the nation. He urged people to thwart attempts to sow the venomous seed of communal hatred for temporary political gains by certain political parties. “The BRS must trigger the real people’s politics in Andhra Pradesh for a bright India and the people of Andhra Pradesh should be part of the exercise to transform India,” he added.