No question of apology, will fight legally; Bandi Sanjay on KTR notice

HYDERABAD: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Telangana President Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Wednesday asserted that he was ready to wage a legal battle on the defamation notices served on him by Telangana IT minister K T Rama Rao (KTR) in connection with the TSPSC question papers leak scandal.

Reacting to the media reports on KTR serving a legal notice on him and threatening to file a defamation case for Rs 100 crore if he did not tender a public apology, Sanjay said that he would not succumb to any such empty threats.

“There is no question of tendering any public apology. I am ready to fight legally for justice,” the BJP president said in a statement. He said that KTR owed an explanation to the people of Telangana on the wealth he amassed in the last nine years. “Everyone knows before the Telangana movement, KTR was in the US. Now, he is worth hundreds of crores. Yet, he is craving for more money in the name of defamation,” he commented.

Bandi Sanjay said that if KTR’s reputation and image were worth Rs 100 crore, how much money should be paid to 30 lakh unemployed youths whose future was in jeopardy due to the leakage of question papers because of the misrule of the BRS government. Describing KTR as a self-styled intellectual, the BJP Telangana president said that the Chief Minister’s son was considering himself as an intellectual par excellence just because he could speak a few English words. “He cannot tolerate if somebody questions his failures and exposes the goofs-up in the government. He would use the police force to beat up the protestors who agitated against the government,” he said.

Sanjay lashed out at the BRS working president for using derogatory language against Prime Minister Narendra Modi without even bothering to respect the latter’s age and stature. He wondered why the BRS leaders and ministers were trying to brush aside the leakage of TSPSC question papers as an insignificant issue. “I am surprised how the issues being probed by the SIT are being leaked to KTR. Initially, he said only two people were involved in the case but now, when more and more names are coming out, he has gone silent. Why haven’t the police filed a criminal case against KTR for trying to influence the probe? And why are they targeting us when we questioned the wrongdoings?” he asked.

Sanjay reiterated the allegation that, as an IT minister, KTR alone would be held responsible for the goofs-up in his departments -- be it the issuance of fake birth and death certificates or the question paper leakage; the death of children who fell in sewage canals or the mauling of children by dogs. “He should quit his post immediately owning moral responsibility,” the BJP leader demanded.