Amit Shah ‘dined with Dalits’ but ‘got food from outside’: KC Rao

An angry Telangana Chief Minister, K Chandrasekhar Rao, has called BJP national president Amit Shah’s lunch with Dalits in Nalgonda district a “big drama” and a “gimmick”.

“Lunch with dalits means the food has to prepared in a Dalit colony. He should sit on the ground along with Dalits to eat. But, the food that was served to him was prepared by one Manohar Reddy at his farmhouse,”said Rao, adding that Amit Shah used a chair and table to eat food while Dalits were standing behind.

“He insulted Dalits with this act. I got feedback from local Dalits there who told how they felt humiliated and insulted by this,” Rao said, insisting that there was enough proof to show that the food served to Amit Shah at Peddadevulapalli was prepared at the local upper caste Annapurna mess.

Media reports confirmed that Shah visited a Dalit family in Peretapalli in Nalgonda district for a Dalit home meal with a troop of media persons to record this one-time event for posterity. But, the food was prepared in the mango orchard of a upper caste landlord in a neighbouring village.

A local Dalit leader Chinta Sambamurthy stood by the table and watched while Amit Shah ate with a spoon from a plantain leaf. For the following day's Dalit home lunch in Bhongir, the food was purchased from the Pedda Devulapalli Annapurna Mess, a upper caste eatery.

Rao’s outburst appears to have been provoked by Shah’s claim, which he repeats in every Opposition-ruled state, that the state government had failed to fully utilise central grants.

Fuming at “blatant lies, unwarranted and unjustified claims by Shah that the Centre has given over ₹1 lakh crore to Telangana and an additional ₹20,000 crore every year and ₹40,000 crore to universities,” Chandrasekhar Rao claimed it was the Centre that was surviving on funds given by Telangana state.

He said only six or seven states in the country contributed funds to the Centre and Telangana was one of them. Rest were revenue-deficit states. Ridiculing Shah’s claim of the Centre giving money to the state, Rao said it was Telangana which paid ₹50,013 crore to the Centre in the form of various taxes in 2016-17 but received only ₹24,561 crore from the Centre in return.

He then dared Amit Shah to prove his figures wrong. If Shah proved him wrong, he said, he would resign from the post of chief minister. He demanded that Shah tender an unconditional apology to the people of Telangana for lying to them.

Chandrasekhar Rao went on to say: “Last September, he (Shah) came here and made similar comments. I remained quiet. But, for the last three days, he has been making serial attacks on the TRS government with blatant lies. If I remain quiet, it will be viewed as my endorsing him, which I don’t. I want to put the facts before the public and expose him before he leaves Telangana… His lies will kill Telangana which is leading on all fronts in the country.”

The BJP president is scheduled to kick-off a 15-day ‘Vistarak’ programme on May 29 as part of the party’s outreach in the South.