Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday found fault with the Narendra Modi government for banning the BBC documentary on Gujarat riots, saying this is not good for democracy.
Speaking in the state Assembly, he questioned the restrictions imposed on the documentary. "When BBC aired a documentary on the Godhara riots, it was banned.
A lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay filed a case in the Supreme Court to ban BBC in India. Why this arrogance?... "Where will this madness take us? Is filing a case in the Supreme Court by a BJP man to ban BBC is an honour for the country.
What will the world think about us. Why this intolerance," he asked. The Chief Minister also remarked that in a big country like India, mistakes do happen and one should admit them.
He said in a democracy, it was not proper to ban the critics or send them to jail. "One should have patience and tolerance. None is permanent as we are at the mercy of people to come to power," he said.
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president said that such behaviour will not be tolerated by people for long. "Post 2024, they will be in ruins. We all saw what one Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan and the subsequent sparks that were generated in the country could do to Indira Gandhi," he remarked
KCR also slammed Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for demanding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's photo at a ration shop in Kamareddy district. "The nation's Finance Minister fought with a poor ration dealer.
She threatened him. Why exactly should PM Modi's photo be displayed?" he asked. The BRS leader also wanted to know why the Modi government is not holding the census exercise in the country.
He pointed out that the process of census began way back in 1871 and it continued uninterrupted till 2011. He pointed out that even during the two world wars, it didn't stop.
KCR said that it's only through census does a government know what the situation is in the country. He alleged that the Modi government is not conducting a census because it was afraid of people knowing the facts.
He said that people belonging to the backward classes and scheduled castes are also demanding a caste census. "The SC population was fixed at 15 per cent long back but with authority, I can say that it has now crossed 17 per cent. In some states it even crossed 19 per cent," he said.