KTR lacks stature to comment on Rahul Gandhi's yatra: Congress

Hyderabad: Former Minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir slammed TRS working president K Tarakarama Rao for his criticism of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra and said KTR has no stature to speak about a leader who is trying to unite the country.

Speaking to media persons at Gandhi Bhavan on Saturday, Shabbir Ali said KTR or other TRS leaders could never understand the essence and importance of the Bharat Jodo Yatra which is aimed at protecting the nation from the dangers of politics of hatred and division.

"KTR is neither capable of sensing the dangers of divisive politics nor he understands the importance of unity against communal forces. TRS leaders cannot think beyond elections and defections," he alleged.

When asked for a reaction on KTR's allegation of the BJP govt at the Centre tapping his phone, Shabbir Ali said TRS tasting the same medicine that it served to opposition leaders and even Ministers in the State.

He said TRS remained a mute spectator when Congress lodged a strong protest against the BJP govt at the Centre on the Pegasus issue. TRS openly backed the BJP govt when the entire opposition objected to illegal phone tapping and today KTR is wrongly trying to play the victim card, he said.

The Congress leader said it was CM KCR who ridiculed democracy and disrespected the Constitution by engineering defections at a huge scale in Telangana. Right from MPs to sarpanches, KCR made hundreds of elected representatives defect to TRS for money, posts and other benefits. In fact, BJP got inspiration from TRS in making elected representatives switch loyalties. Today, both parties are surviving due to the defectors. He said a majority of ministers in the KCR cabinet do not belong to the original TRS and they came from either Congress or TDP. Therefore, he said, Minister KTR or even CM KCR should restrain from talking about moral-based politics.

"PM Modi is ruling like a Sultan (monarch) in Delhi and KCR is behaving like the Sultan of Telangana," he alleged.