Sitharaman told a Telangana shop to put up a photo of PM Modi. Rao, in response, asked if KCR's portraits should be placed all over India.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at a ration shop in the Birkoor village during her visit to Zaheerabad in Telangana on Friday, 2 September, 2022 (Supplied)
In yet another ugly spat between the Centre and the state, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Telangana Finance Minister T Harish Rao on Friday, 2 September, locked horns over who is greater — Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.
Sitharaman, on a visit to Beerkur in Kamareddy district, asked the district collector to ensure that there was a picture of Prime Minister Modi in the ration shop by evening and that she would personally verify whether he had complied with her order or not.
Taking a serious exception to her diktat, Harish Rao, who was in Medak, chafed the Union finance minister, asking her whether she would order placing KCR’s portraits all over the country since Telangana’s contribution to the central exchequer in the form of the taxes was very high, compared to several other states.
Sitharaman is in Telangana in her capacity as BJP leader, and not as Union finance minister. Her visit is part of the BJP outreach programme involving senior ministers spending time in assigned clusters of constituencies under what is called the Lok Sabha Pravas Yojana. She was accompanied by BJP workers wherever she went.
The Pravas Yojana is aimed at “creating awareness” among people about central schemes so that, in Opposition-ruled states, the local government does not walk away with credit for the schemes.
– Under PMGKAY, entire cost on 5kg foodgrains given free is borne by Modi Govt
– Under NFSA, more than 80% of cost of foodgrains is borne by the Modi Govt
Is there any objection to poster/banner of PM Modi being displayed at ration shops?
– Smt @nsitharaman. @BJP4Telangana pic.twitter.com/2Kb0SSRLwZ
— NSitharamanOffice (@nsitharamanoffc) September 2, 2022
Tempers ran high when Sitharaman stopped by at a ration shop in Beerkur and made inquiries about how the PDS rice is being distributed and whether all those who were eligible were getting their share.
Her interaction soon turned into serious lecturing to District Collector Jitesh V Patil who was accompanying her, when the latter, to one of her queries, replied that he did not know what the share of the Centre was in the cost of the subsidised rice being distributed to the beneficiaries. She also asked the collector to take action against the ration shop dealer for behaving rudely with a customer in her presence.
His reply made Sitharaman fly off the handle and she asked him to find out how much it is and get back to her immediately.
She told him in the presence of the villagers and party workers that the Centre was supplying the subsidy rice almost free of cost and that it was bearing the transport, logistics, and even storage expenses for the rice to reach the ration shop, and yet the state was disregarding the Centre’s humane efforts.
She questioned him as to why there was no portrait of Prime Minister Modi at the ration shop at a time when the entire subsidy rice was coming from the Centre. The Centre has been supplying rice free of cost since March 2020 when the Covid-19 infection was at its peak.
She wanted to know why BJP workers were being prevented when they wanted to set up a flexi of the prime minister. She told him that he should ensure that the prime minister’s flexi is in place in the ration shop when she visits once again in the evening.
She later told the reporters that the Centre was bearing the cost of up to ₹29 of the ₹35 per kg of rice that was being supplied to the state, and yet the ration shop did not have the prime minister’s flexi.
Cut to the quick, Harish Rao described Sitharaman’s demand for fixing Modi’s portrait in a ration shop as ridiculous and such demands would only lower the stature and station of the prime minister.
రేషన్ బియ్యం అంతా కేంద్రం ఇస్తున్నట్లు పచ్చి అబద్దాలను ప్రచారం చేస్తున్న కేంద్ర మంత్రి నిర్మలా సీతారామన్ : మంత్రి శ్రీ @trsharish pic.twitter.com/QMxm12wTFA
— TRS Party (@trspartyonline) September 2, 2022
The state finance minister said that Telangana was one among five to six states that are feeding the nation.
The state contributed ₹3,65,795 crore in taxes to the Centre but what the state got in return in the form of central devolutions was far lower. In fact, Telangana is helping several other impoverished states to survive, he said.
This is the wealth of the state which is going to the Centre and other states which makes it all the more appropriate for us to ask the Centre to hang KCR’s portraits everywhere in the nation, he argued.
“You speak all lies and half-truths. But what we speak are naked truths only,” he said.
