PM being 'vengeful' for questioning BJP on 'conspiracy' to scrap quotas: Revanth Reddy
Raising the pitch of his attack against BJP, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah of adopting a vengeful attitude against him for questioning the saffron party over its alleged conspiracy to abolish reservations.
State BJP president G Kishan Reddy took exception to the CM's attack against his party. Referring to Union Home Minister Amit Shah video case, Kishan Reddy said full responsibility for the fake video, which claimed that reservations would be abolished lies with Revanth Reddy. Revanth Reddy, as Chief Minister and president of Congress in Telangana, is the "first accused" in the case, he alleged. Addressing an election rally in Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency, Revanth Reddy said a case has been registered against him in Delhi based on the complaint of the Union Home Ministry. "I questioned BJP. When I did that, PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah resorted to a vengeful attitude and registered a case against me in Delhi," he said.
Revanth Reddy was referring to Delhi Police summons issued him to join its probe on May 1 in connection with Amit Shah's 'doctored' video being circulated on social media. He described the fight in the Lok Sabha elections as between "Telangana pride and Gujarat dominance". "You may think that coming from Gujarat, you can dominate Telangana," said Revanth Reddy, who is also president of Congress in Telangana. Pointing to Modi's election campaign meeting in Telangana on Tuesday, he said he was respectful towards the PM but "Modi came to Telangana as a person from Gujarat and abused us". Modi did not talk about the steel plant, rail coach factory and other assurances made to Telangana in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 and also other requests made to Centre by the state government. He accused Modi of "lying" about the saffron party not conspiring to change the Constitution. Reacting to the case registered against him, he said, "You (Modi) come to my state and intimidate the CM, but people of Telangana are not too innocent... they wont be scared..."
"Khabardar (be mindful) PM ji, you may think that you can threaten me by coming to Telangana. This is my place. This is my territory. You threaten me on my soil?" Later, addressing reporters here, Revanth Reddy sought to buttress his claim that the BJP-RSS has been in favour of changing the Constitution and that the organisations were against reservations. He recalled that the then Atal Bihari Vajpayee led government at the Centre had appointed a commission headed by Justice Venkatachalaiah to review the Constitution.
Revanth Reddy further claimed that former chief of RSS M S Golwalkar and RSS ideologue M G Vaidya, former Union Minister Anantkumar Hegde and former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan have spoken out against reservations in the past. He demanded that PM Modi and Amit Shah spell out their stand on the Venkatachalaiah Commission and the statements of Anantkumar Hegde and Sumitra Mahajan. "Every vote you give to BJP would help to abolish your SC, ST, OBC reservations," he told the people. The CM called on people to vote for the Congress if quotas are to be protected and for removal of 50 per cent cap on reservations.
Taking a dig at Modi, Reddy said the PM belonged to a "forward caste", but included his community in BCs after becoming Chief Minister of Gujarat. Meanwhile, Kishan Reddy said Revanth Reddy has thrown the poll 'guarantees' of Congress to the wind and is now worried about the declining popularity of his party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Referring to the CM's comments that the contest in Lok Sabha polls was between 'Telangana pride' and Gujarat dominance', Kishan Reddy sought to know whether Revanth Reddy ever participated in the Telangana statehood agitation. BJP's state unit is enough to take on Congress and that there is no need to go up to Gujarat, Kishan Reddy said.
He also described INC as 'Italy National Congress'.