Stop behaving like Singapore's Brand Ambassador: Shabbir Ali To KCR

Deputy CLP leader in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir on Thursday accused Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao of acting like the Brand Ambassador of Singapore.

"Although Singapore is a developed nation and deserves full praise for its economic growth, its model cannot be implemented in Telangana due to various factors. As against the Singapore's size of 716.1 sq km, Telangana's area is 114,840 sq km. While Singapore's population is 55.99 lakh, Telangana's population is nearly 4 crore. It is easier to develop smaller areas with less population, compared to large areas with huge population," he said.

Shabbir Ali said that KCR should realise the variation among the resources of Singapore and Telangana. "Singapore's economy depends heavily on exports and refining imported goods, especially in manufacturing. KCR should explain where Telangana stands in these sectors today. It is ridiculous to expect industrialisation while imposing power cuts on the industries. Similarly, Singapore has explored the advantages of being an island nation. It is among world's top three oil-refining centres, the world's largest oil-rig producer and a major hub for ship repair services. The port is one of the five busiest ports in the world. But Telangana does not have a coastline and its economy is mainly driven by Agriculture."

However, the Congress MLC said that Singapore is also the world's third largest casino gambling market after Macau and Las Vegas. "May be KCR wants Telangana to become the gambling hub of India," he said.

"What has attracted KCR is the Singapore's semi-authoritarian regime. The People's Action Party has won every election since self-government began in 1959. The PAP maintained its dominance and gave little freedom to press and also suppressed the civil liberties and political rights. KCR probably wants to implement the same model in Telangana," he said.

"In contrast to KCR's insistence on nativity, only 61.37% of Singapore population are citizens while the remaining 38.63% were permanent residents or foreign workers/ students. Nearly 23% of the Singaporean citizens are foreign born. If KCR wants to adopt Singapore model, then he must change his stand on pre-1956 condition for nativity.

More than the locals, foreign workers are dominating the construction and service industry. Nearly 80% workers in construction industry are foreigners and 50% employees in service industry are foreigners. Is KCR planning to give away local jobs to non-locals as per Singapore model?" Shabbir Ali asked.

Shabbir Ali said that Singapore is the world's most expensive city to live in and the cost of living in Singapore is 260 per cent higher compared to India. Therefore, its model cannot be emulated, he said.

"KCR should stop acting as the Brand Ambassador of Singapore and concentrate on the development of Telangana. He should dedicate his time and energies on fulfilling the promises that he made with the people during elections. Instead of confusing the people with illusional talk, KCR should adopt a realistic approach to solve the problems being faced by farmers, unemployed youth, women and other weaker sections of the society," he said.