Congress BRS Squeak Past Each Others Dares
Both parties accuse each other of backing out amid Gurukul tender and state debt row
Hyderabad: The heated political challenges that flew thick and fast between the Congress and the BRS over alleged corruption in procurement of materials for Gurukul schools over two days, petered out on Tuesday with both sides not into getting face-to-face debates on their challenges and counter-challenges.
Dismissing BRS allegations of corruption in tenders for school uniforms, ministers Ponnam Prabhakar, Adluri Laxman Kumar and Mohammed Azharuddin, who went to the Telangana Martyrs Memorial near the Assembly for a debate with BRS leaders, said the procurement was handled via a highly transparent national e-tendering system to avoid corruption, which they said, was the hallmark of the previous BRS regime.
The procurement was valued at a few hundred crores, they pointed out, and questioned the logic of the BRS’ claim of a Rs 2,000-crore scam. Laxman Kumar, meanwhile, dared BRS senior leader T. Harish Rao to produce concrete evidence of corruption, declaring that he would resign immediately if any wrongdoing was proven.
As this was going on, Minister Jupally Krishna Rao who on Monday said he was ready for a debate with BRS leaders at Telangana Bhavan on loans taken by the BRS government, did not go there. Speaking at Telangana Martyrs Memorial, said it was former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao who should clarify on whether the BRS government had borrowed more than Rs 7 lakh crore, or less than that figure as claimed by BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao.
When Harish Rao and other BRS leaders wanted to go to the Gun Park, police took them into custody citing potential law and order issues. In a late afternoon press meet, Harish Rao said there was more than enough evidence to show there was a scam, and that departments filed cases against each other in the High Court on this matter.
“The Congress government challenged us to a public debate, but backed out. It scored an own goal. It’s refusal to participate in the debate proves there were serious irregularities in Gurukul tenders worth nearly Rs 2,000 crore,” he said.
Meanwhile, Rama Rao, who was waiting at Telangana Bhavan for Krishna Rao, declared that the Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues “staged a cowardly retreat from debt debate.” The Congress, he said, was peddling fabricated debt figures to hoodwink the public. The entire state witnessed the “sheer cowardice of the ruling dispensation, which backtracked after throwing open challenges,” he said.
