Hyderabad: More than three years into his second term as the chief minister of Telangana, K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) appears to be recalibrating his strategy – to grab the bull by the horns and take the BJP head on.
The Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS) suffered a series of setbacks in the by-polls in Dubbaka and Huzurabad, where the saffron party won. Besides, the BJP also made massive inroads in elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). These events have seemingly served as a wake-up call to KCR, the undisputed leader of Telangana.
The people of Telangana, which was formed in 2014, rewarded KCR as he spearheaded the long-drawn statehood movement. In 2018, when elections were held for the second time in the state, the TRS was handed a massive mandate – even as the opposition Congress and Telugu Desam Party joined hands.
While his decision to infuse anti-Andhra sentiment and self-pride proved decisive in the assembly elections, it did not work six months later in the 2019 general elections. The BJP and Narendra Modi’s nationalist rhetoric worked. The TRS’s tally dropped from 12 to 9 and the BJP’s rose from 1 to 4.
Among the seats that the BJP won was the one (Nizamabad) held by KCR’s daughter Kavitha Kalvakuntla. Its vote share of 19.5% also sent shock waves across the TRS ranks.
In this scenario, the issue of paddy procurement came in handy for Rao’s party to reinvent itself in the fast-changing political dynamics. To insulate his eight-year-old government from the heat of anti-incumbency, KCR is trying to depict the Narendra Modi government as “anti-farmer” – perhaps inspired the farmers’ successful movement against the four Central farm laws.
First, KCR staged a high-profile dharna in the national capital on April 11, giving the Union government 24 hours to draft a new paddy procurement policy. Then, some farmers – apparently backed by the TRS – protested near the residence of BJP Nizamabad MP Aravind Dharmapuri a few days back. They burnt heaps of paddy, blaming the ruling NDA for the present glut in the paddy market in Telangana.
While Mr Arvind is hiding in Delhi, farmers of Nizamabad staged protest in front his residence by dumping #Paddy.
Either make your Delhi leaders understand or come back prepared to face the heat of farmers ✊🏻 #OneNationOneProcurement@KTRTRS @madversity @serish @umasudhir pic.twitter.com/izWtJ59saU
Advertisement— Y Sathish Reddy (@ysathishreddy) April 12, 2022
From a paddy push to a U-turn
Immediately after the formation of Telangana, KCR promised to make the semi-arid region with one crore acres of irrigated land – making paddy cultivation easier. He even promised to procure each and every grain from the farmers.
But in 2021, just a few years later, the chief minister appealed to the farmers not to go for paddy – keeping with the NDA government’s procurement policy. Rao had even said, “Vari veste ure,” comparing the paddy crop to a noose around the farmers’ neck.
However, farmers were reluctant to diversify their crops – especially after the government’s massive Kaleswaram irrigation project gave easy access to water from the Godavari river.
The centre consistently expressed its helplessness to procure parboiled rice in view of the dwindling market for this particular type. In the current rabi season alone, the state has produced 30 lakh million tons which eventually found no takers – leaving the farmers at the mercy of millers.
This bred a lot of discontent against the KCR government among the farmers, threatening his party’s prospects in the next election. Agriculture and irrigation have figured at the top of the agenda of the TRS government from the beginning.
In a bid to arrest the farmer suicides in view of distress conditions, the TRS government introduced the Rythu Bandhu scheme in 2018, offering an annual cash incentive of Rs 8,000 per acre for every farmer – apart from free power to run borewells.
Also Read: Telangana Farmers’ Struggle to Sell Paddy Shows KCR Has Sown More Than He Can Reap
Another U-turn
Therefore, the TRS government had to once again reverse its stance. The Telangana government has now decided to procure paddy from farmers as the Union government has firmly put its foot down – saying it will not procure parboiled rice. The state government has opened paddy purchase centres for procurement to begin.
S. Malla Reddy of the Telangana State Rythu Sangham expressed doubts about the Telangana government’s ability to procure the entire stock of grains. “If all the rabi produce has to be procured, the cash-strapped government will incur a huge expenditure of Rs 15,000 crore. Where will the government this amount from? What will it do with huge stocks of boiled rice as the Union government refuses to accept it? These are the unanswered questions,” he said.
“KCR at the end of the day walked into the trap of his own flip-flops. When the Union government stuck to its guns firmly, the TRS leader blamed the NDA government for the misery of the farmers of his state,” Malla Reddy told The Wire.
Sridhar Reddy, president of the Telangana unit of the Kisan Morcha, the farmers’ wing of the BJP, said is attempting to escape the farmers’ fury by blaming the NDA.
The dharna in Delhi also did not evoke the response that KCR hoped for. While he has met several regional leaders for the much-touted “federal front”, none of them were interested in joining the protest. While farm union leader Rakesh Tikait was present, it was not politically significant.
Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao (left) with Bharatiya Kisan Union chief Rakesh Tikait at the dharna on April 11. Photo: Twitter/ Srikanth_TRS1
Congress alleged hand of miller lobbies
The Telangana State Congress party, however, took a different approach to KCR’s reversals. It has described the Telangana chief minister’s moves as ‘stunts’ to promote “rice miller lobbies” – allegedly a key funding source for the TRS.
In a petition submitted to state governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Wednesday, the TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy alleged that the KCR government has ‘purposefully’ created uncertainty, confusion and delayed paddy procurement during the Rabi season to benefit millers.
With the procurement process getting delayed in view of the BJP-TRS blame game, the distressed farmers sold their produce to millers at prices much lower than the minimum support price. Revanth Reddy estimated that the farmers lost Rs 4,000 crore due to such distress sales in the current season.
