KCR’s remark widens Telangana-Centre gulf: Nirmala
Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s recent outburst against Prime Minister Narendra Modi appear to have widened the divide between the state and the centre further.
Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman who took serious exception to the "ill-bread" remarks of KCR on the Prime Minister, is now seeking an apology from the Chief Minister.
"I have made this point very clear to IT Minister K T Rama Rao yesterday. I told him that it may not be appropriate for me to attend the inauguration of the facility set up by Boeing and Tatas at Adibhotla near here when the Chief Minister of the state had made “ill-bred” remarks against the Prime Minister," Sitharaman said.
Addressing media persons at the party office here on Thursday, she said that the offices of the Prime Minister and those of the chief ministers are constitutional positions. If there are any ideological differences and one wishes to criticise the other, there is a way to do it.
We have been in public life for a long time and we know how even the ideological differences should be expressed. But, the way KCR spoke is something we cannot respond in equal breath, she said.
"Referring to Prime Minister in 'Eka Vachanam' was not appropriate. It pained all of us and the country," she said.
The Defence Minister said that she attended the inaugural ceremony of the aerospace facility as it came to production stage within two years after Manohar Parrikar, as Defence Minister, attended the groundbreaking ceremony as part of the Make In India programme.
She said that when she called KTR on Wednesday, the IT minister who was in Nalgonda, said that the Chief Minister's harsh and impolite words were probably the result of his slip of tongue. I raised the issue today again when I shared the dais with him," she said.
The Defence Minister pointed out that even if the objectionable and indecent language was the result of the slip of tongue, the Chief Minister should have admitted it and apologised.