Rahul Gandhi’s ‘BJP Rishtedar Samithi’ jab at KCR’s party over Telangana student’s suicide
The death by suicide of a 23-year-old woman because of alleged postponements of competitive exams, has kicked up a political storm in poll-bound Telangana, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi dubbing the incident murder of “dreams, hopes and aspirations”.
He also took a scathing jibe at K Chandrasekhar Rao’s BRS as he called the ruling party “BJP Rishtedar Samithi (BJP relative)”.
“BJP Rishtedar Samithi – BRS – and BJP together have ruined the state with their incompetence,” he said.
“The Congress government in Telangana will release a job calendar, reorganise TSPSC on the lines of UPSC in 1 month and fill 2 lakh vacant government posts within a year – this is a guarantee,” he added.
The woman died by suicide at her hostel in Hyderabad’s Ashok Nagar earlier this week. A large number of students staged protests in the area and raised slogans against the state government, blaming it for her death.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge alleged on X that she took the drastic step due to the repeated postponements in the State Public Service Commission Exams.
“Shocked and deeply anguished by the suicide of a 23-year-old girl student in Telangana, who reportedly took the drastic step to end her life due to repeated postponements and irregularities in the State Public Service Commission Exams,” Kharge said on X.
“Thousands of young aspirants in Telangana are frustrated and enraged due to the rank apathy of the BRS government in conducting examinations. Youngsters of Telangana hold the corrupt, inept and inefficient BRS Govt accountable and will oust it from power in the state,” he added.
Gandhi, meanwhile, said it wasn’t a suicide, it was the murder of the “dreams, hopes and aspirations” of the youth.
Gandhi’s sister and Congress leader, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, said the repeated postponement of examinations was very “unfortunate and shameful”.
BRS MLA Danam Nagender told ANI that the woman had been suffering from depression over the last 10 years.
“The incident that happened yesterday is unfortunate. I saw the statement of the girl that she did it because of depression. I also saw the police’s statement that she had been in depression for the last 10 days. Some people are short-tempered and make hasty decisions. We are very worried about it and on behalf of the BRS party, KTR and the CM will definitely serve them justice,” he said.
He, however, said KCR and KTR weren’t responsible for everything happening in the state. He also accused the Opposition of politicising everything.
“The BJP and the Congress make KCR or KTR responsible for everything…If someone makes a wrong and hasty decision and commits suicide, then how is the CM responsible for it… We are providing them with a lot of schemes and facilities… The BJP and the Congress find a topic and politicise it… We will do everything for the family,” he added.
Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan has sought a report from the Chief Secretary, DGP and secretary of state Public Service Commission within 48 hours on the incident.
“In this particular case, it has come to the Governor’s attention that Pravallika (the victim) had been preparing for the Group II examination, which had been postponed by the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC),” the governor’s statement read.
On several occasions, Rahul Gandhi has called BRS “BJP’s B-Team”. In July, at a public meeting in Khammam, he said his party would defeat BRS in Telangana like it trumped BJP in Karnataka.
“In Telangana, it is a fight between the Congress and the BJP’s B team, BRS. Like we defeated the BJP in Karnataka, similarly, we’ll defeat their B team in Telangana,” he had said.
Telangana will go to polls on November 30.