On July 10th 2023, KTR tweeted that his father and the Honourable CM has instructed his department to take forward the Metro project in the Old City of Hyderabad. Immediately, the president of the Islamist party AIMIM thanked KTR for the announcement.
For an outsider, this whole sequence would seem very natural. After all, an incumbent government is saying that they will be building new infrastructure and the public representative of that area is thanking the government.
Except that neither the proposal nor the “thanking” is new. In fact, this issue is so old that it will baffle you how the MIM has held development hostage for nearly a decade!
2012: “Blood will flow on the streets of Hyderabad if Metro is built”
We go back to the year 2012. KCR was then in his activist mode. He was very good friends with MIM from back then itself. In a fiery & threatening speech, he thundered, “Blood will flow on the streets of Hyderabad” if the Metro project is built through the Old City area. Old City area is basically the area where the AIMIM reigns supreme – often winning 7 Assembly seats and the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat. KCR could have been more statesman-like and promised to review objections of the MIM to bring in a developmental project to the Old City. Instead, he spoke the exact language that the MIM prides itself upon – violent threats!
2014 to 2018: “We are trying to build but religious structures are coming in the way.”
KCR became the CM in June 2014 and then realised that he cannot allow blood to flow on the streets of Hyderabad. So, he decides to call for a meeting with L&T and discuss a realignment of the Old City Metro. Akbaruddin Owaisi was the only public representative present in the meeting with L&T. When BJP questioned this special treatment for Owaisi, KCR came up with a bizarre and juvenile explanation that he was actually meeting L&T officials and Owaisi happened to also visit his office at the same time! KCR was thus forced to call for an all-party meeting instead of the one-party meeting he had called.
Despite all this chaos around the meetings, nothing actually happened. L&T refused to make any drastic changes as proposed. None of the citizens became any wiser as to what instructions the MIM is giving to the KCR government on this.
2020: “We cleared all doubts that MIM had. Inshallah ye jald se jald khatam ho jaayega”
Meanwhile, construction of the Metro was going on in full swing in all other areas. This meant that a discussion on the status of the Old City metro needs to be once again discussed. In 2016, there was another discussion in the Assembly where Akbaruddin Owaisi accused TRS and L&T of resorting to land scams in the name of Metro. And KTR meekly ended the conversation with a commitment to, hold your breath, hold yet another all-party meeting!
A report in the year 2017 mentioned how disappointed the residents of the Old City were feeling about the lack of Metro in their area, whilst the rest of the city was getting to enjoy the fruits of this project.
In 2018, the BJP yet again bought up this issue in the assembly. KTR now stands in the Assembly and says that the delay on the Old City stretch is because there is a problem with “religious structures”!
In the year 2020, KCR speaks in the Assembly on this topic. He now assures us that all doubts and apprehensions that the MIM had have now been cleared. He tells us that he has assured L&T that the Owaisi brothers and all their MLAs will (literally) stand with L&T folks in the Old City when the construction work will be taken up! He communicates the decision to start the construction of the Old City Metro. He also ended his speech with “Inshallah, ye jald se jald ho jaayega, mein bhi iske peeche padtu”.
It still remains a mystery as to what exact MIM objections stopped the Metro for so long; what exact apprehensions of the MIM were cleared; and more importantly, why exactly should the Owaisi brothers stand with L&T when the works are taken up?
2023: “CM gives approval to Metro works in Old City”
We are now in the present! And am sure that now you are also as confused as I am – if approval is given in 2023, then what was given in 2020? What changed from 2020 to 2023? Were there more negotiations to convince MIM? The 2023 tweet also does not explicitly say L&T has agreed to take it forward.
Many are indicating that the MIM finally gave approval as a quid-quo pro deal of KCR opposing the UCC. It was just minutes after KCR announced the opposition to UCC that the tweet on the metro was sent by KTR. Owaisi thanked both of them in separate tweets at the same time.
The need for MIM’s approval at every stage of governance
This is not the first time that MIM had to approve of policy and governance-based decisions by the BRS government led by KCR. We had earlier detailed here how in the pre-2014 days, KCR thundered why governments didn’t celebrate Telangana’s independence day from the Razakars; and then for 9 years had to wait for AIMIM to give him permission to celebrate this day with a different name (just because the Modi government started to celebrate this event).
A senior IAS officer goes to London to pick up some awards that Hyderabad City won. He tags three people in the tweet announcing this – the CM, KTR and Asad Owaisi! What is the pressing need to report to Owaisi exclusively when the entire GHMC area actually encompasses 3 more MPs?
MIM leaders thrash government officials for doing their duty in the Old City; KCR invites Owaisi for a 6-hour TRS strategy meeting on GHMC elections; the Owaisi brothers routinely refer to how the steering of the car (election symbol of BRS) is in their hands, to wild applause by the audience. KTR occasionally comes to the media and says that Owaisi is a shameless person; that BRS is not allying with MIM at all, much to the bewilderment of the media (because TRS and MIM are in alliance in the GHMC for example!)
The Old City of Hyderabad deserves the exact same facilities as the Hi-Tech City of Hyderabad. It is abundantly clear that AIMIM puts religion over development when it comes to the Old City of Hyderabad. By often giving in to their unreasonable postures, the BRS government is doing grave injustice to the people of the old city.
