“Rs 200 Crore For Miss World Pageant?”
Hyderabad: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi, the opposition party in Telangana, has seized upon Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s recent admissions regarding a revenue shortfall of Rs 71,000 crore, which leaves insufficient funds for salaries and Dearness Allowances, and a complete lack of capital expenditure resources. This has led them to question the decision to allocate Rs 200 crore for a beauty pageant.
On Tuesday afternoon, opposition lawmakers staged a protest during the Assembly’s budget presentation, carrying dried crops to highlight their claims of a “Congress-induced drought.” They criticized the Miss World event and instead called for financial assistance of Rs 25,000 per acre for farmers affected by the drought.
The plans to host the 72nd Miss World pageant were also condemned by BRS leader KT Rama Rao, who denounced the “perverse logic” of the ruling Congress party spending “crores of public money” while simultaneously pursuing him over alleged irregularities in the Rs 46 crore Formula-E race scandal.
“Allocating Rs 46 crore for a Formula-E race in Hyderabad is deemed wrong and will lead to legal repercussions… yet spending Rs 200 crore of taxpayer money on Miss World, a beauty contest, is acceptable! What kind of twisted reasoning is this? Can you clarify, Rahul Gandhi?” he questioned on X last week.
“The Congress government wants us to accept that everything is fine in Telangana… If that is the case, why did the Chief Minister suddenly admit yesterday to negative growth and a deficit of Rs 71,000 crore? Is Telangana progressing or regressing?” Mr. Rama Rao, also known as KTR, continued on Monday.
However, the party has also issued a somewhat less confrontational statement, with spokesperson Krishank indicating that their concerns are primarily about the Congress’ “double standards and hypocrisy,” referring to the Formula-E corruption allegations against KTR.
The BRS has been vocally critical of the Congress party’s financial priorities and its management of the state economy, particularly regarding the lack of development under Mr. Reddy’s leadership.
KTR has charged the Congress with depleting Telangana’s financial resources to fulfill unrealistic promises and distribute freebies ahead of the 2023 elections. He asserted that the ruling party’s “negative politics and policies” have led to a disparity between its assertions of progress and the actual situation on the ground.
In response, the Chief Minister, who has had a contentious relationship with KTR, particularly following the latter’s recent “this mad dog…” remark, accused his predecessor, K Chandrasekhar Rao, of driving Telangana into financial ruin.
Mr. Reddy further claimed that the BRS has burdened the incoming Congress administration with a substantial public debt, necessitating monthly interest payments of Rs 1.53 lakh crore.
“If such a significant amount had been preserved, this government could have constructed homes for everyone… farm loans could have been waived for an additional 70 lakh individuals,” he stated, as reported by news agency ANI.
Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka, who also serves as the Finance Minister, mentioned that the state is actively addressing financial arrears, having already settled Rs 10,000 crore in outstanding dues.
Notably, this marks the second consecutive year that India will host the Miss World pageant; the 2024 edition took place in Mumbai, where Krystyna Pyszkova from Czechia was crowned the winner.
