Need for Presidential rule in Telangana

Nero fiddled while Rome burned. That is history, but the government of Telangana and its leader K Chandrashekar Rao have an equal, if not greater, indifference towards its people due to their inefficiency born out of inexperience due to which they require constant reminders and reprimands from the High Court and the Opposition, all to no avail.

This nonchalant leader of ours only knows how to silence the media and the Opposition with abusive tirades. However, truth cannot be changed. Telangana stands a perfect example of how an inefficient leader's slumber can lead to irreversible damage.

At first, the half-baked genius - the Chief Minister - suggested Paracetamol for Covid-19 and said Telangana would remain safe from coronavirus. He even showed disdain for the use of masks. Then when the cases began to rise, he advocated exactly the opposite. A leader needs a sound judgment and Chandrashekar Rao does not have it.

His non-cooperation is epic. Despite the Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan's visit to the NIMS hospital and her objective reviews of Covid-19 situation in Telangana State, Chandrashekar Rao is suspiciously secretive about revealing the real picture. Far from fulfilling his responsibility of giving confidence to the people of Telangana, he is discouraging people from reviewing the situation. This is in total disharmony with the Governor's assurance to the people that they can rise above the crisis.

The way Chandrashekar Rao continues to handle this pandemic is being watched by the public. There is no congruence between him and his own party men. The Minister for Municipality said that around 3.53 kits were available and an additional 6 lakh kits were on order while the Minister for Health says that there were 4 lakh PPE kits available. In complete disagreement with the above figures, the Health officials reportedly briefed the Central team that the State had around 5.51 lakh kits in May 2020. Chasing up further reveals that the district officials had only 400 to 500 PPE kits.

While the country itself was not producing kits in such numbers and the imported kits were also not sufficient and were rejected and withdrawn from use by the government of India, the claim that Telangana could procure so many kits remains dubious, uncertain and unverified.

Chandrashekar Rao never came up with the costs involved either. He has been advocating minimum and nominal testing in a strictly surreptitious way. While news about surge in cases is rife on media everywhere, the lack of facilities has reportedly impeded treatment of the affected. Common toilets for isolation wards, unhygienic and poor facilities, under-testing, and non-reporting of the test results and false reporting has wreaked havoc and filled the minds of Telangana people with panic.

In a bid to prevent the spread of the disease, the rest of the States in the country have geared up their infrastructure to increase testing. However, Chandrashekar Rao has not allowed for full-fledged testing and is only doing it nominally.

The situation in Telangana appears to be extreme. The masses and migrants suffered a death spell. In this terribly threatening situation, where doctors went on a strike at the inefficiency and carelessness of the government, this government failed to provide any sort of basic assurance to even to the general public, let alone doctors. He is indifferent even to the TIMS (hospital) that was initiated in Gachibowli.

People who raise their voices are being confined to house arrest. It is deeply distressing to note that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has vanished all of a sudden for 11 days and over 2,000 fresh cases of Covid-19 are being registered on a daily basis. However, he is neither regretful nor eager to come for rescue. General public and senior government officials alike, are ignorant of his whereabouts. People have lost all confidence in this government which cannot save them when in need.

While we hear spine-chilling accounts of dead bodies of corona patients getting mixed up at Gandhi Hospital or being eaten by dogs, the Chief Minister has disappeared to nowhere, not even available for a review to instil confidence in the people. This is unacceptable and unpardonable sort of irresponsibility. While all the States have geared up their infrastructure for advanced action, Chandrashekar Rao has disappeared into oblivion. Perhaps the State has never been in this kind of pandemonium.

People have recognised how he continues to mislead them in the name of sentiment in his trademark make-believe propaganda. In his own fantasy, he dreams of himself as an emperor and the opposition as the kings in exile, and unfortunately, coerces people to believe the same.

This whimsical Chief Minister plans to build a majestic building for Secretariat in an emergency situation like this. This sort of action is in strict discord with the public will. The demolition of the historic Secretariat building that has served from the times of 7th Nizam to the last government of the composite State of Andhra Pradesh, is farcical, futile and irrelevant in these times of crisis.

This negligence and indifference of the government of Telangana State, their disinterest in the welfare of its people and the despondence of its people is disgraceful. They have left Telangana State to suffer and succumb to the pandemic. This situation of apathy and anarchy makes it a perfect case for Presidential rule.

People have lost their confidence that this government would come to their rescue. So, we demand Prime Minister Modi to impose Presidential rule in the State of Telangana without any further delay. The government that does not stand by its people is not government at all. It is in view of this dire situation that we demand the Centre to take control of the situation and impose Presidential rule in the State at once.

(The writer is former Minister and president of TPCC. Views expressed are personal)