AICC review of Telangana govt an affront to state's pride: BRS leader Harish Rao

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and former minister T. Harish Rao on Wednesday termed the Congress leadership’s review of the Telangana government’s performance in Delhi as an affront to the state’s pride and self-governance. In an open letter addressed to the All India Congress Committee (AICC), Harish Rao said that the review of the Telangana government’s performance by the central leadership was not merely an administrative exercise but raised concerns about the autonomy and self-respect of the state.

“The spectacle of the Telangana government’s performance being reviewed by leadership seated in Delhi is not a routine administrative exercise but a direct affront to Telangana’s pride and the very idea of self-governance,” he wrote. He added that Telangana was formed after a prolonged movement centred on the principles of self-rule and political accountability to the people of the state.

“Telangana was not created to function as a remote-controlled state or as a political outpost answerable to periodic approvals from Delhi. The Telangana movement fought for self-rule with self-respect, grounded in the principle that the state would be governed by leaders accountable to its own people,” the BRS leader stated.Harish Rao referred to former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s political position that governance must remain accountable to the people of Telangana.“He consistently stated that the people of Telangana are his boss. That assertion represented a clear political doctrine: authority flows upward from the people, not downward from distant power centres,” he said. He further alleged that there was a growing public perception that the current Telangana Congress leadership was more accountable to the party high command in Delhi than to the people of the state.