The surprising U-turn made by Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on implementation of recent central legislations on agriculture has triggered a heated debate in the political and media circles.
The decision surprised everybody as it was only a few days ago that KCR had vehemently opposed the farm laws on the pretext that they were anti-farmer and pro-corporate lobby.
He made his MPs vote against the bills in Parliament and also made his party leaders take part in Bharat Bandh programme early this month.
Generally, KCR doesn’t go back on his policy decisions so easily and so quickly. So, there could be some strong reason for him to backtrack on the new agricultural laws.
Some people say KCR has surrendered to the BJP bosses in Delhi, fearing that the Centre might dig up old cases against him.
Some others say KCR had decided against confronting the Centre at this stage, because the state needs strong financial support from the Centre to continue the developmental programmes.
The latest talk going on in the media circles is that KCR has deliberately gone back on his stand only to fix the BJP. He knows that there would be strong protests from farmers, if the government withdraws purchasing centres from the villages to buy agriculture produce and doesn’t pay the MSP.
“Once the resistance reaches its peak, KCR can blame it on the BJP government at the Centre for forcing the states to implement new laws. He wants to create a negative opinion about the BJP among the farmers,” an analyst said.
In fact, the BJP, too, suspects that there is something fishy in KCR’s changed stand. BJP state president Bandi Sanjay said there ws a conspiracy behind KCR’s unusual decision, though the BJP welcomed it.
“It is pretty clear that KCR wants to run away from his government’s responsibility to ensure better price to farmers. And if something goes wrong, he wants to blame the BJP,” Sanjay said, adding that the chief minister’s plan was to confuse the people.
