‘Made in Telangana’. ‘Made in Hyderabad’. This was the agenda set by the Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi for the new State for the next five years at an election rally here today.
Waving his hand at the crowd at the LB Stadium, he said: “You see, I am not wearing a watch. But few years from now, I want to wear a watch with the tag “Made in Hyderabad’ and ‘Made in Telangana. This is the dream I want you to see. We wish to make it (the region) a manufacturing hub.”
Wide-ranging promisesInterestingly, his 20-odd minute speech (including translation) was almost entirely focussed on Telangana and Hyderabad, making wide-ranging promises. Not once did he mention BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and only once did he speak about the BJP in the context of how the party tried to scuttle formation of Telangana State. He only took on Telangana Rashtriya Samithi and its chief K Chandrashekar Rao, stating that he too makes promises, but doest not fulfil any.
“He promised his party (TRS) will be merged (with Congress). He promised that a SC candidate will be his party’s chief ministerial candidate. He made many other promises, which he did not fulfil.” On Hyderabad, he said it was “everyone’s city-people from far off have come here and contributed to the development. And it is this love and brotherhood that will continue to take the city forward.” Congress party wants to transform the city from a software hub to a hardware hub.
His promises ranged from jobs (three lakh jobs in five years, including two lakh in the private sector), reservation for women, loan waiver for farmers to houses for the poor.