Hyderabad: A ruling party sponsored dharna against the central governments farm policies could not generate the heat among the genuine stakeholders as the farmers kept aloof from participating the much hyped protest in Telangana state. The ruling TRS and its chief KCR gave a clarion call to farmers to demand the central government to procure the paddy of the state in toto alleging that the central government was giving a raw deal to its demand.
MLAs, MPs and MLCs including ministers took part and spearheaded the protests in their respective constituencies but except the TRS cadre and local leaders, genuine farmers could not be mobilised in the required numbers by the party as part of the dharna.
TRS, the torchbearer during the Telangana statehood struggle used to give calls to the masses about dharnas, bandhs and spate of protests under the guidance of TSJAC and people participated in large numbers. For the past seven odd years the same party is ruling the state and except on rare occasions, the ruling party even scuttled the protest efforts of opposition when ever they tried to organise dharnas in the state.
The post-Huzurabad by-election period of course entailed the TRS to take a stand against the BJP and the aggression of opposition was planned in the form of a dharna by the government. The Dharna chowk for which the government created hurdles before being directed by the courts to permit for the protests was occupied by the TRS men on Friday and a sizeable number of TRS activists took part in the dharnas in Hyderabad too.
As a token response to the dharna of the ruling party, the Ministers KTR took part in protest in Siricilla, while finance minister Hareesh Rao took part in Siddipet. Notable absentee to the dharna was chief minister KCR himself and though he gave the call he kept aloof from participating in it any where in the state.
Surprisingly, the leaders and cadre carried paddy haystack and “varigolusulu” in their protests.
The genuine stakeholders, farmers of the state, however, were not keen on the dharna and in many constituencies they squarely blamed BJP and TRS for their dual standard approaches to the farmers issues.
Check out pictures below:
Farmers and supporters of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party shout slogans during a protest demanding the central governement to procure parboiled rice from Telangana state, in Hyderabad on November 12, 2021. | (Photo by NOAH SEELAM / AFP
(Photo by NOAH SEELAM / AFP
(Photo by NOAH SEELAM / AFP
