The voters have spoken. They delivered change. Although the change is not what the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had pitched for, it is a necessary change from a corrupt, autocratic rule that had hijacked the aspirations of the people of Telangana to benefit a single family.
I congratulate Revanth Reddy for leading his party to victory and becoming Telangana’s new Chief Minister. I also congratulate and wish the newly formed cabinet the best in their quest to deliver the change the people of Telangana demand.
Revanth Reddy’s initial actions hint at a welcome attitudinal change towards governance. He removed the iron barricades installed to block entry into his official residence, Pragathi Bhavan, after renaming it as Praja Bhavan, and invited the common public inside to attend Praja Durbars. Similarly, the new Chief Minister quickly removed heavy restrictions imposed by the earlier government on entry into the Secretariat, making it easy for the public to meet him, his ministers and senior officers at their offices.
These steps will remain symbolic unless the same openness is extended to governance. The earlier government hid tens of thousands of government orders (GOs) from the common public. This government should start by making all those GOs public and accessible through its web portal. Similarly, every new GO should be made accessible to the public as soon as it is issued. The citizen’s right to information should be honoured in letter and spirit. The new government should immediately launch a dashboard that provides regular updates on the implementation status of the Congress party’s promises to voters. Be it the six guarantees or the commitments made under various declarations, the new government must keep the state’s citizens aware of progress. This is the respect the state’s voters demanded through their mandate.
Another welcome move by the new government is the decision to release a White Paper on the state’s finances. Every opposition party, including the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), made severe allegations of financial mismanagement and misappropriation against the previous rulers. Even though the dire situation of the state’s financial health was evident much before the elections, the White Paper in the making can help illuminate how and why we got into such a mess, including the rapid rise of public debt – both budgetary and off-budget.
If the Congress government tries to use the White Paper to build an excuse to renege on its guarantees and declarations, it would be no better than the earlier government, which was well aware of the financial situation; yet, to win elections, willfully made promises it knew it could not keep. Even before the polls, almost every economist worth their salt pointed out the difficulty in implementing the promises made by the Congress in its manifesto, given the financial health of the state’s exchequer. The people of Telangana have voted for change  — change from being fooled by empty promises. The BJP will give the new government the benefit of doubt and time to settle in. But, it will not be found amiss in its duty as an opposition party to hold the current government accountable for its promises to the state’s people.
Another reason the voters threw out the earlier BRS government led by Chandrasekhar Rao was its “maximum politics minimum governance” administration model. Worried that the successful implementation of any Central government scheme may become a political disadvantage when fighting the BJP in the state, the ex-CM launched a non-cooperation movement against the Central government and rejected its schemes. Consequently, the state could not utilise Central funds to build much-needed housing for the poor or better school facilities for the kids. Similarly, the state’s poor and farmers were denied health and crop insurance.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the initiative and tweeted to congratulate the newly sworn-in Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and wished him all the best.
He also promised to extend all necessary support to the newly formed government for Telangana’s development. The new Chief Minister should grab the friendly hand raised by the Prime Minister. He should put the interests of Telangana above political calculations and personal egos, and collaborate with the Central government to accelerate the development and welfare of the state’s people.
Apart from the need for honesty, transparency and respect from the new government, Telangana also voted to throw out the earlier government for its corrupt ways and its failure to deliver on the aspirations behind the separate Telangana movement – neellu, nidhulu and niyaamakaalu (water, funds and jobs).
The newly formed government should work to deliver on these long-standing aspirations of the people of Telangana. The BJP will be a constructive opposition that will work to hold the newly formed Congress government accountable for the change it needs to deliver.
(The author is BJP
TS spokesperson)
