Taking inspiration from none other than Hitler himself, Rahul Gandhi’s government in Telangana, led by Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, finished 1000 days of governance.
No, I am not going overboard in bringing in Hitler. I am merely quoting what Revanth Reddy himself has very proudly claimed – that Hitler is his inspiration.
Now, you would be wondering that certainly there would have been some context to the statement and that I am merely twisting his well-meaning comparison (with Hitler).
Revanth Reddy was being interviewed by N. Ram at The Hindu’s annual conclave. Revanth Reddy was asked about the demolitions his newly created department HYDRAA was carrying out in Hyderabad. Revanth Reddy proudly explained how he got inspired from Hitler, who had ahighly efficient assassin squad named Hydra. In case we got confused by what an assassin squad is, Revanth Reddy clarified to us that the assassin squad was very good at assassinating people that Hitler chose. So, he got inspired by Hitler and started a department called HYDRAA and he went about “demolishing like anything”, what he thought were illegal properties (even if scores of families were staying there for many years). In case we got confused by “demolishing like anything”, he compared it to the demolition in Gaza and Ukraine wars.
Since the context is as clear as it can get, you must now be wondering what is this HYDRAA that Revanth Reddy is so proud of? Revanth Reddy created a new department – Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA). True to what Revanth Reddy claimed, they “demolished like anything”. When asked about poignant videos of innocent citizens and elderly citizens crying about being caught unawares by the mayhem, Revanth simply responded by saying that “In a war, it is natural for some people to get impacted”.
Now, imagine the outrage if someone remotely related to the BJP would have said that Hitler is their inspiration. And now compare the absence of outrage by the usual suspects on this atrocious comparison. Infact, The Hindu did not even bother to publish this statement in their newspaper coverage (of their own event!).
The total failure of “6 Guarantees in 100 days”
The inspiration from Hitler is perhaps not restricted to “demolishing like anything”. It extends to cheating the people to a baffling extent never seen in recent times. Rahul Gandhi’s government came to power in Telangana on the back of “6 Guarantees in 100 days”. Day-in, day-out, the entire army of Rahul Gandhi (starting from man himself) told people that ALL the guarantees in the “Guarantee Card” will be fulfilled within 100 days of coming to power.
A full 1000 days later, Rahul Gandhi’s government in Telangana has NOT fulfilled even half of their promises. Old time watchers of the Congress are well aware of the chicanery Congress is capable of. Despite the known history, people trusted that the Congress may have changed after so many losses and will stand by their word, but clearly you cannot change the stripes of a Zebra.
A simple table to show how the government has miserably failed to fulfil their core promises made before the election. Revanth Reddy’s justification for his chicanery is even more amusing – he doesn’t have money even if you “cut him up”!
His constant cry of helplessness is not cutting any ice with the people because, during the campaign, he was very vocal about how awesome he is with respect to managing the budget of the state. We were all asked to just wait and watch how he will set a trend in managing budget just within 100 days!
The Caste Census
Rahul Gandhi’s another favorite governance issue is Caste Census. So, he got his government in Telangana to conduct one. Rahul Gandhi thundered in Lok Sabha how his government in Telangana finished a caste survey and shocking results came to light. I don’t know if the results are shocking, but the classification of the results is certainly very shocking.
Rahul Gandhi’s government didn’t conduct just a caste survey. They conducted a “Socio, Economic, Educational, Employment, Political and Caste Survey” of the entire state (how many vehicles you own, how many properties you own etc)! Lakhs of people were left out, but let’s keep that statistic aside. The government also commissioned an “Independent Expert Working Group” to study this survey. The Chairman? Justice B. Sudarshan Reddy (VP candidate of INDI bloc). The Vice-Chairman? Kancha Iliah. The Convenor? Praveen Chakravarty(Congress member)!
The first and the most obvious thing that strikes to you when you see the summary table released by the government is the fact that a whopping 80% of the Muslim population in the state is classified as a Backward Caste (BC-E). 35.76 lakh Muslims out of the 44.57 lakh Muslims have been classified as a Backward Caste-E; the same BC-E that was stuck down by High Court and is under review in the Supreme Court (the survey report mentions that also!)
Now you may ask if other religions also got the same honour. The summary report released by the state government doesn’t even mention other religions. The detailed report by the Commission tells us that there just 1 lakh Christians in the state of Telangana. And within this 1 lakh, 70,000 of them are “converts” and receive yet another special classification – BC-C. Can you really believe it? That there are only 1 lakh Christians in the entire state of Telangana?
Revanth Reddy passed a resolution in the Assembly asking the central government to increase the BC reservations from the current 29% to 42%, based on this survey. Essentially Rahul Gandhi’s “shocking” proposal is to increase the number of BCs by 10% with the addition of Muslims and the demand and increase in the quota to BCs by 13%!
We can discuss many such aspects of the report in greater detail but then we will miss out on discussing the other phenomenal achievements of this government, so let’s move on.
The 1000-day advertisement
It is natural for you to think that I am just writing about the wrong things of this government. You must be thinking that surely there must have been something great that this government must have done in 1000 days. Afterall, Rahul Gandhi has delivered so many powerful speeches on how awesome his governance will be. So, let’s just take a look at the front page advertisement issued by his government in all telugu newspapers (the below image is an English translation from AI – and it’s accurate).
Please notice the absence of caste survey from this list. Please notice the absence of a single new infrastructure project in the last 1000 days? The entire list is about how the govt has distributed money to various sections. Even that distribution is either mired in scams or is just a partially fulfilled election promise.
Take the first item on the list – Farm loan waiver for 25 lakh farmers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in one of his speeches mentioned about the collection of “RR Tax” – a reference to the two leaders of Congress (in the state and in Delhi). And while speaking about it, the Prime Minister mentioned about the failed promise of waiving loans of farmers. Revanth Reddy immediately shot a letter to the Prime Minister claiming how awesome he is because he waived the loans of 22 lakh farmers.
The central Congress immediately joined the party and released another infographic – “Jo Kaha, So Kiya”. And they mentioned that loans for 40 lakh farmers have been waived!
Now, which number do we trust? 22-lakh released by Revanth Reddy? 40-lakh released by Rahul Gandhi? Or the new number – 25 lakhs? We can do a similar deep dive into all other claims but suffice it to say that where there is Congress, there is always a scam. The reason citizens have developed a disgust towards scams & politicians is primarily the Congress party. They learn nothing; they treat citizens as dumb; and they focus only on amassing money.
The infrastructure announcements (only)!
Revanth Reddy is very high on bombast though. He announced the building a new city in Hyderabad – called Bharat Future City! Hyderabad already has 3 cities in it – Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Cyberabad. No one is able to understand why a 4th city needs to be built, when the existing city is organically expanding. Until people realised that this is just a real-estate game. Revanth Reddy cancelled all plans of a Pharma City and instead announced grandiose plans of a Future City there. He accused KCR of wanting to create a Pharma city to benefit his friends in real estate. Logic simply follows that Revanth Reddy is perhaps doing this to benefit his friends in real estate?
Speaking of real estate, the latest “demolition” by Revanth Reddy (just in the last month) is the sudden addition of lakhs of houses, lakhs of house plots, and thousands of agricultural survey numbers into the “Prohibited Properties List” under section 22A on Registration Act. By a conservation estimate, nearly 1 crore acres were suddenly added to the “Prohibited properties list”! This total lack of grip on actual governance while being high on bombast is really frustrating the people.
Revanth Reddy announced the setting up of a skills University. He unhesitatingly took a 100-crore cheque from Adani for this university. Quite obviously, there was an uproar as to how Rahul Gandhi abuses Adani day-in and day-out, and doesn’t hesitate a bit to take money from Adani!
Revanth Reddy announced the setting up of a sports University. We will have to wait to see what shape and form it will even take. He announced that he will build “Tallest Mahatma Gandhi Statue”. He announced the “Largest Stadium” in competition to the Narendra Modi stadium in Gujarat, will be built in the Future City.
Revanth Reddy is obsessed with the clean-up of the Musi River. You would ask – what is wrong?There is nothing wrong in the vision. But if the vision is not backed by a concrete plan, the vision will merely remain as yet another bombast. Revanth Reddy went on an overdrive claiming that he will spend a whopping 1 lakh 50 thousand crore for the development of Musi – he himself went to London to study their riverfront projects; he sent a delegation of ministers, officers and journalists (yes, journalists) to study the riverfront projects in Seoul!
He said the project with reflect “religious harmony” because he will build a replica of Mecca Masjid, Ramappa temple, Medak Church and the Golden Temple! With opposition parties successfully showing to the people how nothing has happened, Revanth has ended up challenging Prime Minister Modi to fund 1 lakh 50 thousand crore for this! Why should the central government fund his haphazard requests for money?
Gen-Z and education
With Gen-Z being in the news so much, no review of any governance model is incomplete without talking about what is being done in education. Revanth Reddy, who also has the education portfolio, has called the 1.3 lakh engineering graduates of the state as a “criminal waste”. He has not released nearly 15,000 crores worth of fee reimbursement money to degree colleges, thus impacting the lives of lakhs of students. He promised a lot of new schools in each mandal and hasn’t built any. He promised a INR 5 lakh guarantee for higher education and hasn’t given a single pie. His singular achievement in the field of education is to provide breakfast to government schools (look at the ad above!).
The zero grip on governance
Revanth Reddy is often angry with officers. We have been treated with many front page banner items on how “Revanth is angry”. Infact, Revanth Reddy has affected nearly 30 large-scale transfers of IAS & IPS officers in the nearly 30 months he has been in power. These are not some routine administrative transfers of an officer here and there. These are bulk transfers of officers(sometimes they are in a position just for a few months!).
Why would officers be serious about their work if they don’t know when they will be transferred arbitrarily? Infact, the mistrust that Revanth has on the officers in Telangana is so high that he has chosen an officer deputed in Delhi, Sanjay Jaju, to be the Chief Secretary of the state (this report in The Hindu clearly indicates the trust issues).
Revanth Reddy’s mouthpiece in Telugu, infact published a story of how a tender clash between 2 ministers led to a suicide attempt by an IAS officer
Revanth Reddy makes a trip to Delhi at least two times a month. He relies excessively on the Modi government to help him run the state. He is constantly meeting central ministers to seek help and more often than not gets the required help also. His frequent trips to Delhi are not because he has to meet the central ministers though. If you are a congress Chief minister, then you will have to mark your attendance with the high command, even if it means frequent absence from the state.
The zero grip on governance also shows up during various crisis times, such as rains or droughts. There is very little coordination between the ministers and when questioned, Revanth goes on an overdrive to abuse the opposition leaders.
Ah, the abusive language!
In recent times, abusive language has been a trending topic. The trend has completely missed the abusive language that Revanth Reddy so frequently uses. Take for the instance the time he called protesting students as “Cunning Foxes” (they won a stay from the Supreme Court regarding an auction of 400-acre land). He called the 1.3 lakh Engineering graduates from the state as a “criminal waste”.
He went to Delhi and threatened the entire country – “Whoever it is, whether rich or in any position, if he comes against Rahul Gandhi’s command or rule, Telangana is going to write his death order”. Who exactly is Rahul Gandhi to command us? Why must the state kill anyone who doesn’t follow the orders of Rahul Gandhi?
Revanth has constantly abused the opposition leaders with the choicest of words. “I will put lizards in your pants”; “Drought in state will end if we spray their blood on the crops”; The language plumbed to such depths that his most friendly newspaper, The Hindu, had to publish an article deploring “Telangana’s political lingo”.
“Owaisi saab, if you give me permission…”
The bending and crawling before the Owaisi brothers is simply unbelievable. This one time, standing in the Assembly, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy literally sought the permission of Owaisi to speak in Telugu (after answering him in Hindi). On another day, Owaisi Jr. was going on a full out attack on the government in the Assembly. What was Revanth Reddy’s response? “You are scolding me like anything”!! The Owaisi clan is never subjected to the flowery abusive language that other leaders of the state are subjected to.
In Conclusion
There are many on social media who are trying to remind the current generation of the disastrous rule of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. In my view, while it’s important to do that, we don’t have to go back in time to show people how bad a Congress rule can be. We can study the governance in the handful of states they are in power. There is a reason the Congress party hasn’t won a single state twice (after 2011). Everywhere they have won, it has been on the back of an anti-incumbency factor in those respective states. Congress party has not gotten over its habit of lying to people to gain power, only to ditch them. If they can be this blatant in today’s day & age, can you imagine how bad they were back when information was not so easily available?
