Nirmala Sitharaman’s ‘utter lies’ out in open
Political heat in Telangana went up by several notches on Friday when Finance Minister T Harish Rao went ballistic against Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Calling her remarks ‘utter lies’, Harish Rao said the Union Minister’s assertions were the best example of Goebbels propaganda.
The tone for the political war was set when Nirmala Sitharaman made many claims during her visit to Kamareddy district, which was effectively rebutted point by point by Harish Rao.
Speaking to the media in Toopran town, Harish accused Nirmala Sitharaman of ‘uttering blatant lies’ and taking recourse to ‘falsification of statistics’. Referring to the Union Finance Minister statement that every child in Telangana had a debt of Rs 1.20 lakh, he pointed out that the figure, as per the Central government’s reports stood at Rs 89,188 only.
The State Finance Minister asserted that Telangana was one of the largest contributors to the Indian economy and helping the Central government support the poor and backward States.
From 2014-15, Telangana contributed about Rs 3,65,798 crore to the Central government in the form of taxes. In return, the State received just Rs 1,96,400 crore from the Central government, he explained.
Harish Rao also threw a challenge to the Union Minister arguing that the BJP government’s debts were staggering Rs 1.52 lakh crore, meaning every citizen had a debt of Rs 1.22 lakh each.
“How will the Union Finance Minister justify these debts?” questioned Harish Rao. It was during the pandemic, the Centre permitted State governments to avail loans to strengthen the DISCOMs.
In fact, Nirmala Sitharaman herself had informed Parliament in November last that as per RBI reports, Telangana’s debt to GSDP ratio was 23.5 per cent and that it was well within the FRBM limits.
Interestingly, the ratio for Punjab was 42 per cent, Uttar Pradesh 36.6 per cent and West Bengal 36.9 per cent. The Central government’s debt to GSDP ratio was 57 per cent, which was much higher than that of Telangana, he explained.
On Thursday, the Union Finance Minister asserted that “Telangana had overshot FRBM limits, despite the Centre’s warning”.
Similarly, on suicides of farmers, Nirmala Sitharaman’s Cabinet colleague Narendra Singh Tomar stated in Parliament that there was a 50% reduction in the suicide of farmers in Telangana.
“But Nirmala Sitharaman maintains that the number of farmers suicides had increased in Telangana. Whose version is correct? Please answer,” Harish Rao demanded. Explaining why Telangana obtained loans, Harish Rao said that the State had constructed irrigation projects and executed several development works. Telangana was now leading in paddy production in the country. All this was possible due to the Chief Minister’s vision and commitment to ensure growth and welfare while maintaining fiscal prudence.
Lashing out at the union Minister for blowing Telangana debts out of proportion, the Finance Minister asked why the BJP-ruled Gujarat had a deficit budget. For the last eight years, the Central government has been presenting a deficit budget. The union Minister had visited a PDS outlet in Kamareddy district and took objection to not displaying the photo of the Prime Minister at the outlet.
Disagreeing with her, Harish Rao said the Centre’s share in the supply of rice to the poor was 55 per cent and the rest was borne by the State government.
Telangana government spends Rs 3,610 crore annually towards the supply of rice to the poor through PDS outlets, he said adding “Does that mean, we insist on displaying Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao‘s photo in other States.” Harish Rao also found fault with the union Finance Minister for accusing the Telangana governmentof replicating and rechristening the Central government’s programmes.
“Telangana is the only State which is implementing Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bima, Kalyana Lakshmi, KCR Kits welfare programmes and extending 24-hour power supply to the agriculture sector. In fact, it was the Centre which copied Telangana schemes such as Mission Bhagiratha and renamed it as Har Ghar Jal scheme. Similarly, while Telangana was extending Rythu Bandhu benefits to all farmers, the Centre was limiting the benefit to a few farmers with a limit of Rs 6,000 per acre,” he said. “If the Central government is implementing all these programmes, then why were they not being implemented in neighbouring BJP-ruled Karnataka or Maharashtra,” he questioned. Countering her charges that Telangana was not implementing Fasal Bima Yojana, he sought to know why Gujarat was not implementing the scheme. Similarly, on the Ayushman Bharat scheme, Nirmala Sitharaman accused Telangana of not implementing the scheme because “facts would come out”.
Harish Rao asserted that Telangana was indeed implementing the scheme and that this was also admitted by the union Health Minister in Parliament. “I am prepared to resign if the union Finance Minister proves that Telangana is not part of the Ayushman Bharat scheme. But will she quit, if proven wrong,” he challenged.
Union Ministers who were touring Telangana got habituated to uttering blatant lies and misleading people with false figures.
However, in Parliament, they appreciate Telangana’s performances, the Finance Minister said. union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that Kaleshwaram was a failure and not a single acre was supplied water through the project. On the contrary, union Minister of Roads and Transport Nitin Gadkari adjudged Kaleshwaram as the growth engine of Telangana and stated that the Central government had accorded all permissions for the project, said Harish Rao.
He said BJP National president JP Nadda accused that jail building was demolished in Warangal and hospital was not constructed. “When I shared images of hospital construction works on Twitter, there was no response,” Harish Rao said and appealed to the BJP leaders and union Ministers not to indulge in cheap politics.
