Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka.
| Photograph Credit score: NAGARA GOPAL
After years of working in the direction of reviving the Congress in Telangana and enjoying a pivotal function within the victory within the 2023 Meeting election, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka took cost because the State’s Deputy Chief Minister on December 7. He additionally holds portfolios in finance, planning, and power. Vikramarka, a distinguished Dalit chief from the Telangana Congress, is the primary MLA from Madhira to have received in 4 consecutive phrases. In an unique interview with Frontline, Vikramarka discusses the controversies in regards to the fulfilment of ballot guarantees, the State’s monetary well being, speculations in regards to the Congress regime, and the Congress’ strengths within the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Edited excerpts:
Within the run-up to the Lok Sabha election, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP) leaders have been criticising the Telangana Congress for not fulfilling the “six ensures” inside 100 days (as promised in the course of the Meeting election).
We now have strived to fulfil the ensures to the utmost doable extent regardless of time constraints. Though they [BRS and BJP] have been in energy for a decade, they haven’t completed something. The BJP promised two crore jobs per yr and failed. It promised Rs.15 lakh in every checking account, and returning black cash to India; they didn’t accomplish that both. The BRS promised double bedrooms and failed. The place are the three acres of land for each landless Dalit household, one job per family, and the KG to PG mandal-level colleges? Nothing has been carried out. They [BRS and BJP] try to evangelise to the Congress, which is working at a supersonic velocity.
Every of the Congress’s six ensures has a number of sub-guarantees; some have been fulfilled, and a few have but to be.
We started work the second we took oath within the Meeting. Inside hours, we carried out two guarantees: mountaineering Aarogyasri [healthcare scheme] protection from Rs.5 lakh to Rs.10 lakh (medical insurance coverage for the BPL inhabitants) and free bus journey for girls. After that, we fulfilled the promise of gasoline cylinders at Rs.500, free energy for as much as 200 models, and Indiramma homes for the homeless (3,500 homes for every constituency). By the point we started engaged on different ensures, the election notification got here. It’s shameless that they [BJP and BRS] are blaming Congress whereas being conscious of all the varied components.
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In December, you tabled a white paper on how BRS insurance policies have impacted Telangana’s fiscal well being. How are issues wanting now? Has the Congress begun course correction to avert additional harm?
As a result of BRS’ misgovernance, Telangana is a bankrupt State. We inherited Rs.7 lakh crores of loans and money owed. Every month, the curiosity and principal quantity in the direction of reimbursement of those money owed will get routinely deducted from the State income on the supply degree [RBI]. As well as, we additionally must repay the off-budget loans BRS took. The monetary mismanagement had a number of fallouts, such because the delayed disbursal of salaries. Beginning in 2019, the BRS stopped paying salaries on time. For the primary time after a few years, the Congress deposited it on the primary day of the month [from April]. We now have additionally given salaries to retired staff on time. There have been additionally many pending payments, equivalent to mid-day meals, interest-free loans, NREGS and IKP employee’s salaries, and so forth. We needed to clear all of them.
You will have been in workplace for almost 5 months. What are your insights on how the spirit of federalism has been impacted beneath the BJP? Have there been any situations of unfair therapy?
India is a union of States. It’s a federal construction. You need to respect it. The Centre shouldn’t bulldoze any State. It’s damaging to the federal spirit if the Centre desires to take the entire taxation [using GST] into its personal arms and never share the deserved quantities with a number of the States. One may be able to manage it right this moment, however that may result in the suffocation of the States. Ultimately, these States might revolt towards the Centre.
The opposition retains claiming that the Telangana Congress authorities won’t final greater than a yr.
Each the BJP and BRS are power-hungry. They haven’t any respect for democracy or democratically elected governments, and so they haven’t any respect for folks’s verdicts. They wish to unseat democratically elected governments and occupy energy. Relaxation assured, the Congress stands sturdy.
Other than the six ensures, what do you imagine will work in your favour within the Lok Sabha elections?
We promised Prajala [people’s] Telangana, and we delivered. We now have given the Telangana folks the liberty to precise their ideas freely. We now have opened the doorways of our workplaces to folks and restored a democratic spirit. We now have additionally opened doorways for the opposition. Inside months, the Congress issued a job calendar and appointed a public service fee. Practically 30,000 posts have been crammed. We now have additionally begun specializing in ability growth so that individuals can reside respectably. We’re concentrating on infrastructural growth. Telangana goes to be a contemporary State with a contemporary spirit.
Additionally Learn | How Bharat Rashtra Samithi misplaced its sheen to the Congress
Of the 64 seats that the Congress received within the 2023 Meeting election, 56 have been from rural pockets. What helped the social gathering?
There have been no employment alternatives. The tenant farmers, agricultural labourers, and everybody else have been struggling. There was no accountability. Individuals have been robbed of their self-respect. Individuals realised BRS was dishonest them. Our purpose is to assist folks reside dignified lives and it resonated with the folks. Put up-elections, we’re working in the direction of serving to folks obtain financial independence. For example, the Congress revived interest-free loans to self-help teams. The plan is to offer loans price Rs.1 lakh crore to Telangana ladies as interest-free loans over the following 5 years.
There are 24 Meeting constituencies within the Larger Hyderabad Municipal Company area, of which BRS received 16, All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen retained seven, and the BJP retained one seat within the latest Meeting election. The Congress couldn’t win any. What’s your studying of that consequence?
See, earlier [during the Assembly elections] in Hyderabad, we couldn’t focus a lot. On this election, we’re centered. We’re getting good responses, and we shall be getting good outcomes.
The BJP appears to be your main contender in Telangana within the upcoming elections.
The BJP and BRS are collectively anyway. We don’t see them individually. On one facet, there’s Congress, and on the opposite, there’s the BJP and the BRS.
