BJP leader accuses KTR of fudging facts

Hyderabad: BJP leader Karuna Gopal asked IT Minister KT Rama Rao to think on sustainability instead of speaking in hyperboles and presenting misleading and exaggerated facts and figures, and mega projects.

Addressing the media persons here on Saturday, Karuna Gopal said a fact-check on KTR's allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government at the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) leadership summit, exposes his intention to use a politically neutral body of professional platform to further his political agenda. That too, distorting facts on Modi government to brainwash industrialists and to hide his own shortcomings.

Besides, KTR had exposed "his naiveté. Lack of knowledge in certain areas like economics, geo politics and governance," she added. Karuna Gopal said unfortunately KTR used a politically neutral platform to the discomfiture of many attending it. So trying to 'brain wash' such an elite group against the Modi government exposed his naiveté and political ambition.

The BJP leader pooh-poohed the claim of KTR's claims of Telangana being the most successful startup of independent India. " I am asking him to show me one startup with that kind of a beginning– With HYD contributing more than 75 per cent of State's GDP, TRS govt just inherited a " performing company".

However, the fact of the matter is that Hyderabad under IT Minister KTR is "a 2.22 % per center." she said. Out of 90 unicorns in the start-up ecosystem in the country, Hyderabad has only one until recently and added one more recently.

According to experts the start-up ecosystem in Hyderabad lacks a 'product development mindset' just a 'back office for services'. And, Hyderabad is way below Chennai and Pune, she said.

The BJP leader called the IT Minister's China example several times in his speech – in the context of its business environment & manufacturing, she said, 60 per cent of the industry in that country is State-controlled. On the contrary, India is removing the state control reposing faith in the private enterprise. Karuna Gopal reminded how the IMF told China seeking a bailout from it in 2018 asking to "stop building roads , airports, ports - large grand infrastructure) focus on governance!"