Invoking the divine, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao embarked on an 'Ayutha Chandi Maha Yagam' (Recitation of Chandi mantras 10000 times) along with a Ganapathi Puja on Tuesday.

Invoking the divine, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao embarked on an 'Ayutha Chandi Maha Yagam' (Recitation of Chandi mantras 10000 times) along with a Ganapathi Puja on Tuesday. At his sprawling agricultural farm, a 40-acre “sanctified” piece of land was specially decorated for the ritual. The ritual concludes on 27 December.

This Yagam comes at an estimated expenditure of Rs 7 crore; this amount is being spent from his personal coffers. However, considering the state expenditure towards the participation of the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, Union Ministers, Governors of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Naidu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and several Supreme Court judges, and many other VIPs, industrialists and celebrities, in the grandiose event, the ballpark figure comes to about Rs 20 crore.

The National General Secretary of the Communist Party of India Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy told Firstpost that the expenditure could be in excess of Rs. 20 crore. Though KCR was saying that he was footing the bill from his personal coffers, it was advisable for the people’s representatives to focus more on people’s problems.

“None of the chief ministers were saved by yagams and religious events. Several officials and policemen were deployed at the yagam site and a lot of officials are working overnight there. At whose cost?” asked Sudhakar Reddy.

There are two big questions staring at the Telangana government. First, considering that the state of Telangana is reeling under severe drought conditions at the moment, one must ask, is this yagam necessary? Second, is it necessary at all when governments across the globe are speaking of promoting scientific temper?

The Government’s request seeking an assistance of Rs. 2,541 crore from the Centre for drought relief was submitted to a central team that visited Hyderabad to estimate the drought situation in the State on 7 December 2015.

The Government declared 231 out of 443 mandals in Telangana State as drought hit. What’s more intriguing is that all the 46 mandals of KCR’s native Medak district, in which the yagam venue is situated, all the 64 mandals in Mahbubnagar district which he represented between 2009-14 in the Lok Sabha and all the 36 mandals in Nazamabad district from where KCR’s daughter Kavitha is elected to Lok Sabha, were declared as drought hit.

The official statistics compiled by the Indian Meteorological Department estimate the rainfall deficit of 34 percent in 2014 (498.5 mm of actual rainfall as against 755.2 mm of normal rainfall) and 20 percent in 2015 (600.8 mm).

Dr GV Ramanjaneyulu, an agricultural scientist and Executive Director of Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA), a non-governmental organisation working for the farmers' cause, explained that 1,840 farmers committed suicide in Telangana ever since the new state was formed.

He raised more pertinent points that expose the truth that things are not going well. The maximum number of farmers' suicides (288) in the last one year until 23 December were recorded in Medak district represented by the Chief Minister. And, more embarrassingly, the maximum number of suicides in Medak district occurred in Gajwel Assembly constituency – 61 out of 288 — represented by KCR himself. More than 100 farmers ended their lives in the four mandals of Gajwel, Dowlthabad, Cheryal and Jagadevpur (where the yagam is being performed).

The Medak District Collector was supposed to attend a meeting of farmers on Wednesday. However, he skipped the meeting due to protocol duties at the yagam venue. “Are the officials taking leave to attend the yagam work? How can it be a personal affair of KCR?” asked Dr Ramanjaneyulu.

It was enshrined in the Directive Principles of State Policy in the Constitution that India would promote scientific temper among people.

Recalling a public interest litigation filed in High Court of Hyderabad by professor M Kodandaram, Chairman of Telangana political Joint Action Committee, on behalf of the Telangana Rythu JAC, Ramanjaneyulu said that 134 farmers committed suicide only in the month of September 2015 in Telangana. In response to the notices issued by the High Court, the Telangana state government had said that “only 94 were genuine farmers suicides. And, others had other reasons.”

In fact, because of the lackadaisical attitude of the Telangana Government, which had failed to declare the State drought hit in 2014 itself, the farmers lost an opportunity to be encompassed under drought relief measures. Any place can be declared drought hit, if the rainfall is 20 percent less than normal. And, in the event of a consecutive drought year,a deficit of 10 per cent to normal rainfall obviously makes the place drought-hit.

Instead of managing the natural resources efficiently and leading the people in a scientific manner, how can the Government lead the people on the path of superstition, Ramanjaneyulu asked. “God is not responsible for droughts and people’s misery. The wrong priorities of leaders are,” he quipped,

The official spokesperson of AICC and former MP Madhu Yaskhi Goud demanded that the details of funds collected for the event be made public, else the party would seek a CBI probe into it.

The Chief Minister had earlier said that some of his friends contributed some funds for the conduct of the event.