A war of words broke out between Telangana’s ruling TRS and opposition Congress on Tuesday after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s tweets over procurement of paddy from Telangana farmers.
With Gandhi slamming both the BJP government at the Centre and the TRS government in the state for failing to procure paddy, TRS leader K. Kavitha joined issue with him.
Kavitha, a state legislator and daughter of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, advised Gandhi not to just resort to tweets for political mileage but extend support to the TRS demand for uniform procurement policy for the entire country.
Kavitha took to Twitter to respond to Gandhi’s earlier tweets in Telugu. She wrote that every day, TRS MPs are going to the well of ths house in the Parliament demanding that there should not be one procurement policy for Punjab and Haryana and another policy for other states.
“If you are sincere, come to the well and protest in support of TRS MPs. Demand one nation one procurement policy,” Kavitha told him
Congress MP incharge of Telangana Manickam Tagore hit back at Kavitha, asking her not to play with Telangana farmers by ‘one nation one procurement’ demand.
“Nothing personal against you. Kindly don’t take the Nizamabad defeat to your heart. It’s the same Turmeric farmers who defeated TRS because TRS couldn’t keep the promise to farmers,” tweeted Tagore referring to the defeat of Kavitha in Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency in 2019 when several turmeric farmers had filed their nominations.
Stating that farmers want their paddy to be procured for a decent price, Tagore warned Kavitha that if they play with farmers, then what turmeric farmers did to her in Nizamabad will happen to the TRS in 2023. He urged her to tell KCR not to play with farmers of Telangana.
Kavitha then hit back, this time targetting Gandhi. “This arrogance reduced your party into double digits in the same parliament. Win or lose, I did not run away from my constituency like your ex-CP Rahul Gandhi did. Also, I did not contest two seats like your ex-CP,” she tweeted, tagging Gandhi.
Stating that the TRS is demanding ‘one nation one procurement policy’, she wanted to know the stand of Rahul Gandhi on this. “TRS will always be with the farmers & won’t rest until every gram of Telangana paddy is procured,” she added.
The exchange of words did not end with this as Manickam Tagore tweeted again to tell Kavitha that TRS MPs are not in the well of the Lok Sabha but “are in the Central Hall tasting Dhokla and Biryani”. “Let’s not forget who signed an agreement in August 2021,” he wrote referring to the agreement signed between the Telangana government and Food Corporation of India (FCI) over procurement.
State Congress chief A. Revanth Reddy also tweeted that Telangana government had signed an agreement in August 2021 that it will not give boiled rice to FCI, and “the signature on the agreement has now become the noose around Telangana farmers’ neck”.
