BRS Leaders to Boycott President Murmu's Budget Address in Parliament

To protest the alleged anti-people policies of the BJP-led government at the Center and its alleged abuse of the Governor's office to topple non-BJP ruled governments in states, the BRS, which has 16 members in Parliament, has again decided to abstain from President Droupadi Murmu's speech to the joint session of Parliament on January 31 at the beginning of the Budget session.

The decision to boycott was apparently made during the BRS Parliamentary Party meeting, which Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao called on Sunday at Pragathi Bhavan with the party's Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members to finalise the party's plan for the Budget session of Parliament.  Under the condition of anonymity, the party MPs acknowledged that the CM had given them instructions to approach the floor leaders of non-BJP parties in both Houses and persuade them to boycott Murmu's speech, despite the fact that this was not included in the CMO's media release. According to party sources, the CM was certain that the opposition parties would come together once more to boycott the President's speech and protest the claimed anti-farmer, anti-people, and undemocratic policies of the BJP-led government at the Centre. The BRS, one of 16 opposition parties, boycotted former President Ramnath Kovind's speech during the previous Budget session in 2022.

According to reports, the CM raised alarm at the BRS meeting on Sunday that the "flawed policies" being carried out by the BJP-led government at the Centre were causing the situation in the country to worsen day by day.

"The BJP-led government's policies have made it difficult for the country to develop and maintain its integrity. The Center is handing its corporate friends money that hard-working people have worked so hard to achieve. The central government has forgiven debts totaling thousands of crores of rupees as a special gesture of gratitude to its supportive business entities. Shares of public businesses like LIC are being randomly transferred to powerful entrepreneurs like Adani. The country is seeing the hollowness of the companies, which are daily losing thousands of crores of rupees as a result of the sharp decline in the value of their stock. It is obvious that their profits do not entirely represent wealth, Rao was quoted as saying in a CMO press statement.

Additionally, it was clear that by privatising the country's assets, the Center was suffering irreparable losses. According to the CMO's release, both Houses of Parliament should speak out against the Center's "dangerous economic policies" that "help the business sector to make profits while people suffer the burden of losses." "BRS MPs should firmly protest the BJP-led government's stance, which is hurting the interests of the country's people,  CM said.

The CM said, "The Centre should be forced to tell the nation what is the reason behind creating financial and other obstacles to Telangana which is running on the path of progress." He claimed that the BJP government was undermining the federal spirit and causing trouble for the states in various ways. The CM slammed the Center for allegedly using the Governor's position, saying, "It is undemocratic that the Center is weakening the states by utilising the Governors as its puppets. The wicked policies of using the system of governors, who are intended to be mediators between the Center and states while carrying out their constitutional responsibilities, for their personal political gains, should be vigorously opposed by the BRS MPs in both Houses.

According to reports, he instructed the MPs to expose the Centre's attitude and the Governors' undemocratic policies "who are attempting to obstruct state development and governance, as well as that the Governors are purposefully delaying the decisions made by the state Cabinet, Assembly, and legislative council. The CM reportedly took the Centre's failure to uphold its commitments to Telangana under the AP Reorganisation Act 2014 seriously and gave his MPs instructions to bring up the matter during the current Parliamentary session. The rising costs of essentials, fuel and LPG prices, and unemployment were among the topics that the CM wanted the MPs from his party to bring up in Parliament.