Union Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman is on a 3-day tour of Telangana and has participated in various programmes. Then she went to Kamaretti, Panswada and conducted a check in one of the ration shops there. Before asking whether the goods are being distributed properly and about the quality of the goods, she reportedly asked the District Collector JiteshPatil, “where is Prime Minister Modi's photo? Why not keep it?”.
And 'What is the central government's share in ration rice? He also questioned.
The manner in which a Central Minister behaved towards the District Collector has become a national topic of conversation.Opposition parties have been criticizing NirmalaSitharaman for insulting the District Collector in a public place. Her appproach the matter of insisting toplce the Prime Minister's picture in the ration shop is wrong.
Commenting on this, Telangana Finance Minister Harish Rao said, ``NirmalaSitharaman's speech is funny.
Central government provides ration rice only to 50 to 55% ration card holders under National Food Scheme.The Telangana government provides ration rice to the remaining 45%. Are we putting the Chief Minister's picture for this?'' he said.
The National General Secretary of the Communist Party of India, SitaramYechury, who has posted about this on Twitter, has expressed a heated opinion that saying,``Prime Minister Modi's picture should also be printed on GST tax payment receipts''.
Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy took to his Twitter page and said that Union Minister NirmalaSitharaman's behavior towards District Collector in Telangana is shameful. He has harshly but rightly pointed out that she may have written a letter to the Minister of Public Distribution complaining about the absence of Prime Minister Modi's photo in the ration shop.
Ration shops are functioning all over the country. Has the Union Government given any order to display the picture of Prime Minister Modi in those shops? Are you advising the state governments? Never. When that is the case, how is it fair to go to some ration shop and grill the District Collector as to why he didn't put Modi's picture? What can the Collector do? Can the Collector order to display the Prime Minister's picture in all the ration shops in the district in defiance of the state government?Union Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman, who is considered one of the most senior posts in the country, would have been justified in expressing her anger at the Telangana Chief Minister's or at least the State Minister of Public Distribution instead of the collector.
NirmalaSitharaman is acting as if there is a picture of Prime Minister Modi in the ration shops across the country and only the ration shop she inspected does not have a picture of the Prime Minister. NirmalaSitharamanwho gives an order to a district collector, should all the ration shops across the country to display the Prime Minister’s picutre. Like Annamalai in Tamil Nadu, there is no doubt that Nirmala Sitharaman has dared to do politics from a new angle in Telangana!