Social media erupted with memes and posts trolling Malla Reddy and the BRS leadership, hailing the auction result as proof of renewed investor confidence in Telangana under the Congress.
Raidurg Record ‘Lands’ a Punch on BRS
A seven-acre land parcel at Raidurg fetched a jaw-dropping Rs 1,500 crore — translating to a record-breaking Rs 177 crore per acre — giving Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and the Congress government a massive image boost. The timing could not have been more ironic. Just hours earlier, BRS MLA Ch. Malla Reddy held a press meet accusing the Revanth regime of wrecking Hyderabad’s real estate market, claiming that “no one is ready to buy even a square yard, forget acres.” By evening, the Raidurg auction turned his statement into a viral punchline. Social media erupted with memes and posts trolling Malla Reddy and the BRS leadership, hailing the auction result as proof of renewed investor confidence in Telangana under the Congress. The Rs 177 crore per acre figure shattered previous records, with the highest bid during the BRS era touching only Rs 100 crore — a clear sign, Congress leaders claimed, that ‘Brand Telangana’ is booming.
Stunning silence of babus and cops
The silence of Telangana IAS and IPS Officers’ Associations over the shocking suicide of Haryana IPS officer Y. Puran Kumar has sparked murmurs in bureaucratic circles. Kumar, a Haryana-cadre officer and a native of Hyderabad, found dead at his Chandigarh residence on Tuesday, left behind an eight-page suicide note that alleged “blatant caste-based discrimination, targeted mental harassment and public humiliation” by 10 senior and retired police officers. His wife, Amneet Singh, an IAS officer serving in the Haryana government, lodged a complaint with the police naming the accused officers for abetment to suicide. Despite the gravity of the allegations and Kumar’s Hyderabad roots, neither the Telangana IAS nor the IPS association has issued even a condolence message. Their silence, observers say, stands in stark contrast to their prompt statements on issues involving political overtones. The muted response has triggered an uncomfortable question within bureaucratic circles — do these associations find their voice only when it aligns with political convenience?
No monkey biz this… voters say their mann ki baat
No monkeying around this time when the time comes. No more promises about roads or ration cards. Whoever will contest the local body elections as and when they may be held, will have their tasks cut out in several villages in Nirmal district. Folks from Nilaypet, Lokeshwaram, Kunala, Laxmanchanda, Kankapur, Anantpet, Manda, and Parpalle among many other villages are clear — their votes will be to whoever frees them from the monkey menace, with our unanimous votes for sarpanch posts. The villagers say the time for freebies, or even money for votes is over. And these people say they have not gone bananas either. And no leaving monkeys after they are caught someplace from where they can come back. The monkeys gotta go and must be gone for good, is the demand. The sudden brakes on the poll process has now people waiting to see who will take up their get rid of the monkeys for our votes challenge.
Harish magnet for defectors seeking BRS space
Senior BRS leader T. Harish Rao may be seen often as playing the second fiddle to party working president K.T. Rama Rao — after all KTR is the number two in the party after KCR — but if enthusiasm among party workers and leaders to his presence is anything to go by, Harish continues to remain not just a crowd-puller but also one in whose presence local Congress and BJP workers, looking to a political future, line up to join the BRS. This past week Harish Rao welcomed a huge number of activists into the BRS from the BJP in the Yellareddy Assembly constituency. With the general consensus being that the BRS has now become a party of leaders and not as much as of cadres, the joining came as a much-needed boost for the BRS amidst talk of elections to local bodies. But now that the prospects of these polls appear to be fading beyond the horizon, it remains to be seen if those who came in, will stay till the day of reckoning that might come later.
Katipally’s new idea: Quotas for all
Reservations are the flavour of the political season and joining in was the BJP MLA from Kamareddy, Katipally Venkata Ramana Reddy, who apparently cracked the intractable problem. Amidst the heat of the 42 per cent BC reservations row, now on stay by the Telangana High Court, Ramana Reddy said may be it was time to have reservations for every caste, just as there are for the BC, SC, and ST communities. A formula to fit the OCs, BCs, SCs, and STs in the same quota cake remains missing. The required math can follow the idea, is what the BJP MLA apparently believes in, leaving many in the party wondering where this plan or idea came from, and if it is something that the party will even ever want to talk about.
How the political light shines, and dims
Godmen and swamys may be dime a dozen and some might even rise to the top and wield influence and clout, but even they can’t do much without political patronage. Such has been the case with Swamy Swaroopanandendra Maha Swamy of Vsiakhapatnam Sarada Peetham, who enjoyed clout in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh when KCR and Jagan were in power in the two states. The Swamy had claimed that a yagam he performed for KCR helped him win a second term in 2018, and it was his intervention that saw Jagan romp home to power in the 2019 elections. In fact, such was the demand for his attention from people that X category security was provided by the then Jagan government to him, and a spanking new road was laid to his Peetham by the Vizag municipal corporation. But with both KCR and then Jagan losing elections, it was just a matter of time before what was unthinkable in the past happened. The AP revenue department withdrew allotment of 15 acres of prime land in Bheemili to the Swamy’s Peetham, and later he wrote to the DGP seeking withdrawal of police security. And now, NDA leaders in AP are demanding a probe into his assets which he might have amassed during YSRC and KCR regimes.
