Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, on Thursday, accused Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao of discriminating against majority community by not paying any kind of honorarium to priests and not giving permissions for construction of temples.
“The BJP is committed to safeguarding the Sanathana Dharma and the Hindu traditions. It is unfortunate that KCR, who often claims that TS is rich, doesn’t bother about paying salaries to poor priests of temples who will starve but will not stop offering ‘prasad’ to the presiding deity,” he said.
Interacting with representatives of Brahmin community after they submitted a petition listing out their grievances at his ‘Praja Sangrama Yatra’ at Kundaram village of Nellutla mandal in Jangaon district as it entered the 16th day, the Karimnagar MP regretted the plight of the community “who were protecting the Hindu dharma”.
Mr. Sanjay Kumar questioned why the CM was “not interested in paying ₹6,000 a month as honorarium to the priests as he was giving the same to the Imams of the masjids”. “The TRS government instead of giving equal respect to all religions, is trying to drive a wedge between communities with its discriminatory approach putting all kinds of restrictions on the Hindu festivals,” he charged.
The BJP president made no bones about stating that the party would strive to consolidate its vote bank among majority community and bury “anti-Hindu” forces. Stating that the party would stand by the community, he promised setting up of a Brahmin Development Corporation, in place of the present defunct Brahmin Parishad if voted to power.
The community will be given political representation by giving them ticket in the next elections “wherever they have a chance of winning” and will be made eligible for welfare schemes like health cards and two-bedroom housing. A Vedic school in every district and Vedic university at the state-level too have been promised.
The Narendra Modi government at the Centre had brought in reservations for EWS - economically weaker sections, which would help the community get education and employment benefits, the BJP leader reminded the community leaders.
Tarun Chugh arrives
National general secretary Tarun Chugh arrived in the city and immediately got into a huddle with general secretaries G. Premender Reddy, D. Pradeep Kumar and Bangaru Shruthi, where the ‘attacks’ on the ongoing ‘Praja Sangrama Yatra’ allegedly by TRS supporters, arrangements for the forthcoming Munugode public meeting to be addressed by Home Minister Amit Shah on Aug. 21 and bike rallies in the districts came up for discussion.
Preparatory meeting
At a separate meeting, former Minister and MLA Eatala Rajender met the mandal and booth level party functionaries of the Munugode constituency along with Nalgonda district president K. Sridhar Reddy where it was noted that CM KCR had “deliberately decided to hold a public meeting a day before in the constituency and this was another example of ‘cheap tactics’. Hence, partymen were told to pull no stops in making Mr. Amit Shah’s meeting a grand success where former Congress MLA Komitireddy Rajgopal Reddy will be joining the party.