Revanth’s actions delay desired change

The actions of Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on the Kaleswaram Lift Irrigation Scheme ‘scam’ are not in accord with what he had demanded fiercely while campaigning for the recent Assembly elections. They seem to mirror French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr’s words: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Before the elections, like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress too had accused the earlier Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government led by Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao of looting public money running into thousands of crores of rupees through the Kaleswaram project. Revanth Reddy, as the president of the state Congress unit, led the attack against the BRS government and demanded the Center to launch a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to expose the corruption and punish the offenders.
As late as early November — less than four weeks ahead of the polling day — the Congress scion, Rahul Gandhi, after visiting the damaged Medigadda barrage, accused the Chief Minister’s family of using the Kaleswaram project as their ‘personal ATM’. As a follow-up to Rahul’s accusations, senior Congress Vice-President G Niranjan wrote to President Droupadi Murmu the next day demanding an investigation by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Before the elections, the Telangana Congress leaders even accused the BJP of going soft on Chandrasekhar Rao, citing the non-initiation of a CBI probe into allegations of corruption in Kaleswaram. Only three weeks after becoming the Chief Minister, Revanth Reddy made a complete 180-degree U-turn. Keeping aside his earlier demand for a CBI probe, his government announced plans to order a judicial inquiry instead. When BJP state unit president and Union Minister Kishan Reddy questioned him on his volte-face, the Chief Minister, believing offence is the best form of defence, accused the CBI of being a puppet in the hands of the Central government and that the BJP is asking for a CBI probe to save Chandrasekhar Rao and his family.
Revanth Reddy, whose political career spans decades and who was a Member of Parliament earlier, is aware that a 3-member committee appoints the CBI Director. Apart from the Chief Justice of India, the committee includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha – Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, giving both the BJP and the Congress equal vote in the appointment. The Chief Minister is also well aware that the CBI needs either a request from the state government, which is totally in his hands now, or a High Court order to investigate allegations of corruption in the Kaleswaram project.
One wonders what changed in less than two months. The Congress state chief had reposed complete faith in the CBI before coming to power – even though the CBI was investigating several senior, national leaders of the Congress, including Sonia and Rahul, in the Associated Journals case and Chidambaram in the INX Media case. One wonders what changed in the past three weeks for him to lose that confidence in the impartiality of the CBI once he became the Chief Minister with authority to order a probe by the central agency.
Rejecting a CBI probe is not the only flip-flop on the Kaleswaram corruption issue. Only a few days back, Congress reversed its stand on the sinking piers of Medigadda barrage. Before the elections, Congress agreed with the National Dam Safety Authority’s (NDSA) report. It claimed that the entire Medigadda barrage – not just the six sunken piers – is structurally unstable and that even two upstream barrages – Annaram and Sundilla, built on similar design, geology, and construction methodologies face identical problems. Just three weeks into power, the Congress government changed its tune. The Congress, which before the elections had claimed that the entire one lakh crore rupees poured into the Kaleswaram project was a waste, is now saying just rebuilding three piers at Medigadda and applying grouting to Annaram barrage is all that is needed. All this without any detailed investigation!
If the Congress was sincere, it could have at least filed cases using its anti-corruption police, the ACB (Anti Corruption Bureau). Instead, the Congress, going by the all-out attack on Kishan Reddy, seems hell-bent on ordering only a judicial probe and nothing else. Filing an ACB case could have allowed the Enforcement Directorate to launch an independent investigation into any associated money laundering – something Congress had earlier demanded. But it appears that is precisely what the government wants to avoid: to get to the truth using all possible tools.
For the people of Telangana, replacing BRS with Congress gives no hope of any real change in governance. The farmers affected by Pharma City have already experienced this bitter truth. The initial cancellation of Pharma City, followed at jet speed by the cancellation of the cancellation, crashed any hopes for justice for the farmers affected by land acquisition. It might not be long before the voters realise that Congress used the faults of the earlier government only to gain power, not to remedy the situation.
(The author is BJP
TS spokesperson)