Telangana Neta Natter | Revanth Puts Musi Religious Zone Plan In Action

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy’s recent distinction between political chants appears to have acquired a rather concrete shape. Revanth had said the Congress chants “Hara Hara Mahadeva”, describing Lord Shiva as the God of the poor, while the BJP chants “Jai Sriram”. While the BJP tried to nitpick, the Revanth government within a week issued a GO for developing the Omkareswara Swamy temple complex at Manchirevula on the banks of the Musi in Hyderabad for a whopping ₹1,108.27 crore, along with a six-lane approach road linking the proposed temple as part of Musi rejuvenation project. The political buzz is that Lord Shiva has been given the first slot in the Musi’s proposed spiritual line-up. But the Congress government is not stopping there. A mosque, church and gurudwara are also proposed along the Musi banks, with funds for the other three expected to follow soon.

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El Nino? The beer will keep flowing

Telangana may be preparing to count every precious drop of water, but the state’s beer industry need not worry. Excise minister Jupally Krishna Rao has apparently found a drought-proof formula for breweries: water will be ensured, even if it means drawing supplies from the Srisailam project. The minister said there would be no El Nino impact on beer production, assuring that breweries would get adequate water despite the looming concerns over irrigation and drinking water supplies. For farmers watching reservoirs, canals and borewells with growing anxiety, the message may sound simple: when water is scarce, priorities matter. Crops can perhaps survive on hope, households can be advised to conserve water, and irrigation can wait for better days — but the beer industry, it appears, has been placed on a special hydration plan. The statement has also thrown up an unusual question: Is there a separate water policy for beer? As Telangana debates how to manage a possible water shortage, breweries can apparently raise a glass without raising a worry. For beer, it seems, there is always water.

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Monsoon gone, KTR still hasn’t walked the talk

Words and deeds usually form the very benchmark in politics and politicians. But, at times, words tend flow more freely than water, and such appears to be the case with BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao’s warning that he would take up a padayatra from Kodad to Hailya if water was not released from Nagarjunasagar for irrigating crops. This announcement came in the Assembly with KTR declaring if water is not released by the end of the monsoon season, then he would hit the ground with his padayatra. Though some BRS leaders are visiting farmers in distress and whose crops have dried up and offering words of solace, they have kept a studied silence on their leader’s declared padayatra, though the monsoon is long gone.

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NRR willingly walks into ECI cleft stick

Defending the indefensible is part of the bag of tricks every politician carries, and Telangana BJP president N. Ramachander Rao, also a lawyer, appears to be no exception to this rule. The other day, when answering questions about the ongoing SIR that has now turned very controversial, Rao, in an apparent pro bono act, or rather following his party line, rose to defend the Election Commission, a job that was best left to the poll panel to do. In the face of the Supreme Court declaring that Form 6 should not be changed, and the ECI saying than an extra declaration, Annexure D, was deemed required, which the ECI said it ordered using its administrative powers, Rao argued that the controversy was being stretched too far, and in the process did more damage than good for his party raising the question as to why the BJP needs to defend the EC even as it claims it has nothing to do with the commission’s workings.

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After Surekha exit, Seethakka moves in

Opportunities in politics seldom come by. As every smart politician knows, the best opportunities are those that are crafted, or created, with some finesse which can leave the other side gasping. This is the conundrum doing the rounds in Warangal now after Konda Surekha’s exit as a minister, particularly following a review meeting chaired by minister Danasari ‘Seethakka’ Anasuya with officials from erstwhile unified Warangal and Khammam districts. Seethakka is now the lone minister from the erstwhile Warangal district. Against this backdrop, a review such as the one she chaired recently quickly attracted some political attention with the question whether Seethakka was reviewing the performance of officials — or quietly reviewing her own political roadmap, and possible expanding influence in the region. Officially, it was a governance review. Politically, however, some see the early signs of a recalibration of power equations in Warangal Congress politics.

Brakes and a hard climb for Bhatti & Co

Murphy’s Law has a way with the best laid plans. Take the incident involving Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, with a handful of other ministers in tow, deciding to take the Hyderabad Metro Rail to promote the unified travel pass for the Metro Rail and RTC buses in the city. As the cameras flashed and news video cameras rolled, the escalator Bhatti and others were taking at the Begumpet station apparently decided to call it a day and shut down, the last thing anyone expected to happen at an event peppered with so many VIPs. Stranded on the stuck escalator, Bhatti and co., climbed the rest of the way up before catching a train and continue with the event, but there were some chuckles from those watching from the sidelines. After all, it is not every day that a VIP gets to experience what common folk are forced to live with.

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BRS event turns into ‘chair-raising’ fracas

It is usually about who gets which chair, for those in politics. But at times, when emotions run high and tempers flare, the very chairs can turn into weapons of sorts as it turned out at a BRS’ BC cell meeting in Peddapalli the other day under the aegis of Peddapalli constituency in-charge and former MLA Dasari Manohar Reddy. Trouble erupted as soon as the meet began with some leaders questioning why only some, and not all BC leaders, were invited to the event and blamed the former MLA for ignoring a section of BC leadership. As the words got heated between the two sides, both camps picked up the plastic chairs and attacked each other. The chairs possibly would have kept flying for a little longer but cops, who got wind of things, rushed in, and clamed things down.

Contributions from L. Venkat Ram Reddy, Neeraj Kumar, Sanjay Samuel Paul, Narlagiri Yadagiri, P. Srinivas, Raghu Paithari