Dirty tongue syndrome needs to change

A new trend is being witnessed in Congress party. The Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy is emerging as the most vociferous spokesperson for former AICC chief Rahul Gandhi. Whatever line Rahul takes on any issue, Revanth speaks in loud voice and lashes at all BJP top leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Perhaps he wants to emulate what the then chief minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy who as the chief minister in undivided Andhra Pradesh during his tenure from 2004-2009 made the Congress listen to what he said not vice versa thanks to weak leadership at AICC level. At the moment, barring Revanth Reddy in Telanana and D K Sivakumar in Karnataka, there are no strong party leaders in Congress party who can echo Rahul’s line of thinking and make people think about those issues.

Revanth’s oratory skills are bringing him mixed reactions. While the party leaders feel that he is very effectively countering the BJP and he is able to score brownie points with party leadership, the growing feeling among the people is that he should soften his tone and tenor and display qualities of an effective leader who can convey what he wants without using cuss words

It was this very Revanth Reddy and his team who had been accusing the former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his team of ministers including BRS working president K T Rama Rao of using foul language against all. They had on many occasions said that KCR was insulting the Telangana culture by using such language. Telangana is known for giving respect to the people and has a very rich culture, history and literature, Revanth and even the Deputy CM Bhattivikramarka had said on many occassions.

But now the Chief Minister is going hammer and tongs using very strong words against his political opponents. Public platforms, all political leaders should understand, particularly in the two Telugu states are meant for putting forward your views in a saner manner and not with a dirty tongue which gives an impression that they are trying to settle personal scores. Well on a second thought, they are indeed settling personal scores and hardly anyone is bothered about development of the state.

Revanth and KCR may justify their words saying that the other side does not understand more civilised language and hence they need to be given back in the same coin. But that is not a healthy trend.

One has seen how the lingo in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh had degraded in the last five years and how the law makers spoke on the floor of the Assembly with no one to say Juban Sambhal Ke Baat Karo (control your tongue). Even the custodian of the rights of the members in state assembly, the Speaker did not control them and today it had resulted in becoming a norm for all during election campaign.

This kind of trend is not seen in the northern belt. Even in Tamil Nadu where the assembly had witnessed certain unsavory incidents, had not used this kind of repulsive language. Criticising on basis of policies, programmes, failures of the government of the day, alleged scams, corruption etc is fine. But dirty tongue syndrome needs to change. But the way the campaign in both the Telugu states is on, it appears that after the elections, it would become more shriller. One can only pray ‘Sub Ko Sanmathi De Bhagwan’.