The following article was written for MyInd Makers. Pasting it here for reference:
Minister KT Rama Rao tweeted that there is so much to learn from the nearly 2 ½ hour press conference that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao conducted on Sunday evening in Hyderabad. Many commented that we have to be careful with what we learn because if someone uses the exact same words that Chief Minister KCR used on KCR himself, chances are high that they will get arrested! NDTV, which is in an official arrangement with the Telangana government to telecast pro-Telangana government schemes, termed the press conference as “politically explosive”. What the likes of NDTV won’t actually tell is the exact language that Chief Minister KCR has used in the press conference.
KCR called Yogi the “man with a lungi from UP” whose state’s per capita income is less than Telangana and therefore he has no right to comment on Telangana. KCR says that in fact Sikkim’s per capita is higher than UP and this is a fact worth committing suicide on. While on per capita, KCR says that Telangana’s per capita is higher than the national average and therefore BJP has no right to talk about their “munda mopi” policies. “Munda mopi” is slang that roughly translates to a “widow”.
KCR then referred to a purported statement of TN BJP President, Annamalai, that there are many Eknath Shinde’s waiting to bring down governments in TN and Telangana. KCR called Annamalai a “daddama” and “sannasi”. Both these terms roughly translate to “fool”.
Continuing his tirade, he said that BJP has become so arrogant, so arrogant that they got some "random", "sitting idle in a corner" "foolish" retired four judges and dared to write to SC against serving Judges who commented against Nupur Sharma. From where does BJP get this "balupu", "khanda khavaram"? he thundered. These two words roughly translate to "arrogance".
One of the biggest controversies in recent times in Telangana was on the issue of paddy procurement. At that time, Telangana ministers claimed that minister Piyush Goyal told farmers of Telangana to eat raw rice. KCR reiterated the same and called him Piyush Golmaal and termed him a “nethi leni sannasi” which roughly translates to a “brainless fool”.
He referred to the Agniveer controversy and referred to some purported statements on some leaders who apparently said “Army needs young josh”. KCR then asks that if Army needs young people, doesn’t BJP need young people? He says that if Army needs young people, then we must remove Narendra Modi from power because he has gotten old!
Ever since I tweeted a thread on this language by KCR, TRS folks went berserk on my timeline and started hurling abuses at me. Some asked why I was ignoring the main points of the press conference and focusing mainly on the language only. Some questioned why I have not dared in writing or countering the facts that KCR spoke in his press conference! It is another matter that several articles have been written on factual claims by KCR and TRS.
In this particular press conference, KCR gave the logic that Sikkim’s per capita is high because its population is very low. By his own logic, it makes total sense that Telangana’s per capita income is higher than that of UP. It’s not that KCR or cadre doesn’t understand this – their main grouse is that there is no BJP leader worth his or her salt who can criticize KCR’s governance because of higher per capita income. KCR himself cites examples of UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh as examples of failed BJP governance (citing per capita again) but skips mentioning Karnataka and Gujarat for the same parameters.
KCR is well within his rights to question the competence of any political leader in questioning him. He can choose which statistics to make his point. It is a mystery though as to why he finds it compulsive to use abominable language to describe his opponents. One of the reasons TRS cadre claims is that his opponents in the Congress and BJP also use similar language against him. That still doesn’t explain why KCR will call the soft-spoken Union minister Kishan Reddy a “randa minister” (roughly translates to widow) or accuse retired SC judges as being fools.
KCR’s aggressive posture does indicate a growing frustration towards a growing BJP in the state. The BJP has been able to electorally defeat TRS in various elections since 2018. Will this translate to them winning the 2023 elections is really difficult to tell at this point in time, but KCR’s language definitely is a giveaway that BJP’s rise is not something that can be ignored by the TRS. The English media which went bonkers when the Prime Minister coined the term “Andolan Jeevi” are totally silent when leaders of non-BJP leaders heap abuses. It is time for other media to highlight the deplorable fall in the standards of our discourse.
