From PM Modi portrait to chastising collector, BJP rues about Sitharaman own goals in Telangana

This has led BJP insiders to introspect over how one of the party’s most prominent faces could have handled things better.

The district collector episode

For starters, there was the episode where Sitharaman, at a ration shop in Beerkur, decided to give District Collector Jitesh V Patil a dressing-down.

Why? Because he apparently did not know what the share of the Central government was in the cost of the subsidised rice being distributed to beneficiaries.

Sitharaman flew off the handle and she asked him to find out how much it is and get back to her immediately.

This public chastisement of the district collector did not sit with many — including those beyond strict political circles.

And whispers within the BJP are that Sitharaman could have handled this much better had her outburst been a private affair rather than the public spectacle it became.

The portrait debacle

During the same visit, Sitharaman also chastised the collector and the ration shop owner for not displaying an image of Narendra Modi on the shop premises.

That elicited two immediate replies. The first was from Telangana Finance Minister T Harish Rao, who said such demands only lowered the stature and station of the prime minister.

He added that Telangana was one of the few states in the country that was a net contributor to the Centre, and not a drainer of Central resources, as was the case with other states.

The second response came in kind from TRS social media convenor Krishank.

He shared a video showing the prime minister’s photo pasted on gas cylinders along with how much each cylinder of gas costs now.

The video turned out to be at least as viral — if not more — than the Union minister’s rebuke of the district collector and ration shop owner.

BJP insiders, thus, were wont to feel — once again — that Sitharaman’s outburst had the opposite effect of what was intended, and that is not good for the party.

The give-vs-take debate

The third reason that some corners of the BJP are whispering against Sitharaman is her ongoing war of words with Telangana’s Minister of Municipal Administration and Urban Development KT Rama Rao, popularly known as KTR.

Even as Sitharaman was being accused of being a publicity agent for the prime minister, KTR claimed that for every rupee that Telangana was sending the Centre, it was getting back ₹0.46.

Then, the Union minister tried to point out that every newborn in Telangana had a debt of ₹1.25 lakh on their head.

However, people were quick to point out that the number of Telangana was actually ₹89,000 per baby, which was lower than the national average.

KTR piled on by saying that the ₹1.25 lakh figure was the actual national average, and that the debt had accumulated because of the prime minister’s borrowing policies.

Madam FM waxes eloquent on Fiscal prudence;

Till 2014, in 67 years 14 Prime Ministers of India together have raised a debt of ₹ 56 Lakh Crores

Then came PM Modi Ji; in the last 8 years alone India’s debt incremented by ₹ 100 Lakh Crores

Every Indian has a debt of ₹1.25 Lakh

— KTR (@KTRTRS) September 4, 2022

Sitharaman also asked if every region or entity in Telangana that benefited from the revenue generated by Hyderabad should display a poster of Hyderabad MPs.

However, murmurs within her party are that this rhetoric negates Sitharaman’s own suggestion of having Modi’s photo in a ration shop in Telangana.