HYDERABAD: For the second year in a row, the BRS, which has 16 members in Parliament, has once again decided to boycott President Droupadi Murmu’s speech to the joint session of Parliament on January 31 at the start of the Budget session, to protest against the alleged anti-people policies of the BJP-led government at the Centre and its alleged abuse of the Governor’s office to destabilise non-BJP ruled governments in states.
The boycott decision was reportedly taken at the BRS Parliamentary Party meeting convened by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao with the party’s Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members at Pragathi Bhavan on Sunday to finalise the party’s strategy for the Budget session of Parliament.
Although boycotting the President’s address was not mentioned in the CMO’s media statement, the party MPs under the condition of anonymity confirmed that the CM had instructed them to approach the floor leaders of non-BJP parties in both the Houses and persuade them to boycott Murmu’s speech.
Party insiders said the CM was confident that the Opposition parties would unite once again to protest the alleged anti-farmer, anti-eople, and undemocratic policies of the BJP-led government at the Centre and boycott the President’s address. In 2022, 16 opposition parties, including the TRS (now BRS) had boycotted former President Ramnath Kovind’s address during the previous Budget session.
The CM reportedly voiced concern at the BRS meeting on Sunday that the situation in the country was deteriorating by the day as a result of the “flawed policies” being implemented by the BJP-led government at the Centre.
“The policies pursued by the BJP-led government have become obstacles to the development and integrity of the country. The Centre is giving arbitrarily the hard-earned people’s money to their corporate friends. The Central government is showing special affection towards its friendly corporate forces and waived loans worth lakhs of crores of rupees. In public sector companies like LIC, shares are being transferred to big businessmen like Adani aimlessly. The country is watching the hollowness of the companies which are losing lakhs of crores of rupees on a daily basis as the value of their shares plunged suddenly. It is clear that their profits are not all wealth,” the CMO press release quoting Rao stated.
Further, it pointed out that the Centre was making irreparable losses by privatising the country’s assets. Both Houses of Parliament should raise their voices against the “dangerous economic policies” followed by the Centre which is “helping the private sector to gain profits and people bear the brunt of losses”, the CMO’s release stated. “BRS MPs should strongly condemn the attitude of the BJP-led government which is harming the interests of the people of the country,” it quoted the CM as saying.
Alleging that the BJP government was undermining the federal spirit and causing trouble to the states in several ways, the CM said, “The Centre should be forced to tell the nation what is the reason behind creating financial and other obstacles to Telangana which is running on the path of progress.”
Slamming the Centre for the alleged misuse of the Governor’s office, the CM said, “It is undemocratic that the Centre is using the Governors as their henchmen to weaken the states. The BRS MPs should strongly oppose in both Houses the evil policies of using the system of
governors, who are supposed to be negotiators between the Centre and states while performing their constitutional duties, for their own political interests.”
He reportedly told the MPs to expose the attitude of the Centre and the undemocratic policies of the Governors, “who are trying to obstruct state governance and development”, and that the Governors are deliberately delaying the decisions made by the state Cabinet, the Assembly, and the legislative council as well.
The CM reportedly took a serious view of the Centre not fulfilling the promises it made to Telangana under the AP Reorganisation Act 2014 and instructed his MPs to raise the issue during the Parliament session. Among the other issues that the CM wanted his party’s MPs to bring up in the Parliament were the increasing prices of essential commodities, fuel and LPG prices, and unemployment.
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