The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, let the cat out of the bag this time in Telangana. While campaigning for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Modi exposed Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s (KCR) yearning for the saffron to join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Modi also disclosed that KCR pleaded for an alliance in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation after the BJP’s stellar performance of bagging 48 seats. The shrewd Modi did not fall into KCR’s trap. He used him to get important bills cleared in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Thereafter, Modi discarded him like tissue paper! Both the Chandra—Sekhar and Babu were eclipsed in the Telugu states.
Double dealings between politicians are nothing new. But KCR’s double dealings with the saffron and the green at the same time make him vulnerable just before the Telangana Assembly polls. Muslims who fell for KCR’s false promises in the 2014 and 2018 elections and voted overwhelmingly for KCR’s party feel cheated and taken for a ride. The Muslim reaction can be calculated from the fall in percentage of votes to the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) in the upcoming polls. Though KCR’s brazen anti-Muslim stance of voting against Muslim interests on Triple Talaq, Article 370, and other issues was known to Muslims, the sudden expose by Narendra Modi will surely make the Muslims ponder their next political move if they are not to be completely marginalized.
K Taraka Rama Rao (KTR), the energetic son of KCR, tried to douse the Modi-lit fire by saying that BRS was not bitten by a mad dog to join the NDA. Why should the poor mad dog be dragged into a clear case of saffron yearning and political backstabbing of Muslims? It may be recalled that I disclosed in my earlier column here that Narendra Modi had questioned KCR as to why he called him (Modi) a fascist. Such was the stare and scare of Modi that KCR reportedly got up from his seat, shivering and apologizing profusely with a bowed head. It is said that this made Modi laugh and gave a message that at least KCR will not be able to take him on at the national level. The BJP government at the center has not helped Telangana even during floods. The promised Turmeric Board never came until yet another announcement yesterday. The voters are waiting to apply chili in the BJP’s political eyes. Announcing ‘development schemes’ before the polls is just a gimmick, or, as some say, a form of bribery.
The BRS has already announced its list of candidates and went through political ethnic cleansing of Muslims with tokenism. With no sight of a Muslim legislator from BRS making it to the new Assembly out of the three musketeers, Muslims may have started mulling their alternatives rather than going after their ‘Naktey Mamu’ whose political nose is bleeding after Modi’s punch at a political rally. Muslims in Telangana have been eating in their houses with their hard-earned money but taking Mamu’s goats for shepherding. They did it in 2014 and in 2018, plus the Lok Sabha polls. But for how long?
‘Ghar ka Khaake Mamu k Bakriyan Chararain! Wo bhi, Aise Naktey Mamu ke!’
