KCR Prefers Court Over Assembly as Kaleshwaram Debate Heats Up
Anyone can go to court against anyone. There is nothing wrong in that. But the behavior of BRS chief and former Telangana Chief Minister KCR can be described as strange. Regarding the Kaleshwaram project, he approached the High Court twice within a span of a few days over the report given by Justice P.C. Ghose. On Sunday, as the government was about to table this report in the Telangana Assembly and hold a discussion, former CM KCR and former minister Harish Rao rushed to the court for the second time, requesting that no action be taken against them based on this report even if the matter is discussed in the Assembly. In the fresh petition, they appealed for directions to that effect until the final verdict is given on the petition they had filed earlier in the High Court. What is strange here is that BRS chief and former CM KCR is repeatedly approaching the court but is showing no interest at all in attending the Assembly. In fact, he often declares that if he attends the Assembly, CM Revanth Reddy and the Congress government would not be able to withstand it. Then, when he has a chance, why does KCR not come to the Assembly and attempt to put the Congress party and the government in a tight spot as BRS leaders claim?
As usual, BRS working president KTR and former minister Harish Rao are publicly saying to the media that there is no need for KCR to attend the Assembly during the Kaleshwaram discussion—if the government answers the questions they raise, that will be enough. While in power, they claimed that the Kaleshwaram project was entirely KCR’s achievement. He himself claimed to have transformed his blood and sweat into the successful completion of the project. Now, even the Justice P.C. Ghose Commission has made it clear in its report that former CM KCR alone took all the decisions. Along with him, the Commission also blamed former ministers Harish Rao and Etela Rajender. A Congress leader mocked, saying that if the Assembly discussion leads to decisions for action against those responsible, will KTR and Harish Rao then declare that they will accept the punishment on behalf of KCR as well?
The flaws in the Kaleshwaram project, built at a cost of nearly one lakh crore rupees, have already come out in the open. It remains to be seen how many more twists this issue will take after the Assembly discussion. Even some BRS leaders feel that if KCR really wants to say something to the people of Telangana about the controversy-ridden Kaleshwaram project, there could be no better opportunity than this. While he avoided the Secretariat when in power, now he is avoiding the Assembly when in opposition, and many in BRS circles feel that KCR is politically inflicting severe damage on his own party. What decisions the Congress government will take in the coming days regarding this Kaleshwaram report and the Electricity Commission report has now become a matter of great significance.
