Stand for states

Hyderabad: In yet another step towards cobbling a formidable antiBJP and anti-Congress coalition, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Sunday met DMK president MK Karunanidhi and his son and party working president MK Stalin in Chennai and discussed the broad contours of the political alternative.

In his meeting with the DMK leaders, KCR has reportedly stressed the need for larger allocation of funds to the states to make them strong and a blue print to make the economy more vibrant. KCR has already raised the federal front alternative with his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee, JD-U president HD Deve Gowda and former chief minister of Jharkhand Hemanth Soren.

KCR’s visit to Chennai along with an entourage barely two days after the TRS plenary dispelled any doubts that his assertion that he would trigger political tremors at Delhi from Hyderabad is not a mere act of braggadocio and that he was quite serious about what he was saying.

At Chennai after conferring with Karunanidhi and Stalin, KCR said: We have discussed reviving the economy. Japan was ruined in World War-II but today it joined the league of developed countries because it could kindle its economy and the same should be the case with India. We are not fast enough. The present pace will not lead us anywhere,” said KCR.

In his Federal Front endeavour, KCR seems to be not averse to burying hatchet with anyone, including his one-time political rival AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. He said: “We are best friends. We were colleagues and worked for many years together,” he said, and pointed out that he would have a dialogue with him on the formation of the alternative for making the country a truly powerful nation.

KCR reportedly discussed with Karunanidhi and Stalin the issues on which he had been delving at length – that the Centre should have a limited role and the states should be empowered. He has been advocating that the Centre should not have subjects with which it has nothing to do like laying of roads in villages, health or education.

KCR is also against the concurrent list and even questioned whether the concurrent list is being continued so that the Centre could have control over the states. “We should have a greater degree of autonomy for states and several other issues,” KCR said. Stressing on the need for a qualitative change in governance and in the politics of India, KCR said that there should be more devolution of funds to the states, transfer of subjects like Health, Education, Agriculture, Rural and Urban development, drinking water, weaker section housing. The Centre can focus on subjects like external affairs, international relations,” he said.

KCR said, “We should behave in a more democratic manner. The centralisation and dictatorial trends of the successive governments in the last seven decades should go. Stand for India now, act truthfully. Federalism will last long in the country. States should get its share.” The Chief Minister further said that the country should be secular. “As far as Stalin and I are concerned, India should be a secular country. We should respect one and all and everybody should have a respectable place in the country,” he said.

KCR sought to dispel the notion that the coalition that he was trying to form was for capturing political power. “There is no Front as such. This is all media creation. It is not a mere alignment of political parties but of people of India. We are trying for betterment of country. It is not political,” he said.

Stalin to be chief guest at crop scheme programme

DMK leader M Stalin would be the chief guest for the state government’s prestigious Rythu Bandhu programme of distribution of crop incentive of Rs 8,000 per acre to farmers on May 10. This was disclosed by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao during his visit to Chennai. KCR said he had invited Stalin to come as the chief guest for the programme and the DMK leader had also given his consent.