A day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Telangana, ‘Modi No Entry’ flex banners have appeared in the Banjara Hills, Jubilee Hills, and Hitec City areas of Hyderabad on Friday. A flex banner that was seen at the Nagarjuna circle near Panjagutta in Hyderabad read: “Modi, No entry to Telangana. Roll back 5% GST on handloom products.” It was purportedly put up by Telangana Chenetha Youth Force.

 

PM Modi is visiting Telangana on November 12 to formally inaugurate the revival of the Ramagundam Fertilisers and Chemical Limited (RFCL) plant in Ramagundam. He is set to hold a public meeting at Mahatma Gandhi Stadium, NTPC, Ramagundam. The Prime Minister will also dedicate a new railway line and lay the foundation stone for three highway projects.

The Telangana government and the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) have been up in arms against the Centre and one of the key issues among them has been the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on handloom. Recently, thousands of postcards were mailed by handloom workers to the Prime Minister from the state capital as part of the campaign. The ruling party leaders in the state have been continuously raising the issue of handloom weavers with the Centre.

A call to send lakhs of postcards to the PM was given by the state Handlooms and Textiles Minister K T Rama Rao, who is also the TRS party’s working president. Recently, he started an online petition appealing to the Centre to remove GST on handlooms in the best interest of the weavers.

Earlier too, a full-blown poster war had broken out between supporters of TRS and BJP when the latter hosted its national executive committee meeting in Hyderabad in July. Several ‘#ByeByeModi’ posters and banners were seen across Hyderabad and its surroundings.