₹15,000 crore today, ₹12,000 tomorrow
Telangana BJP can’t keep its arrears math straight. The government says the annual requirement is ₹2,200–₹2,400 crore and has moved fee aid to DBT; the BJP is shouting two different totals in two days and won’t show its sheet.
The fee-reimbursement figures remain disputed, while the government’s annual estimate and court-directed timeline are on record.
The Telangana BJP launched a two-day hunger strike in Hyderabad over fee-reimbursement “dues”. Depending on which BJP functionary you ask, the arrears are either ₹15,000 crore hitting 40 lakh students, or ₹12,000 crore affecting 20 lakh. Both claims were made this week — by the party’s general secretary and its state president, respectively. According to the reports that carried them, neither came with the calculation.
Here is what is on record. The state government says the annual requirement for fee reimbursement is ₹2,200–₹2,400 crore and has announced direct transfers to students from 2026–27, with ₹250 crore initially set aside. A government order also acknowledges pre‑2026–27 liabilities to institutions and says the DBT shift does not extinguish them — which is not the same thing as the BJP’s numbers, and it does not state a total. The High Court, meanwhile, has asked the government for a timeline to clear admitted dues up to 2025–26.
What is not on record: the BJP’s arithmetic. The party has offered no scheme-wise or year-wise breakup to explain why its own figure fell from ₹15,000 crore/40 lakh to ₹12,000 crore/20 lakh in 48 hours. That is a political slogan until they publish the sheet. The Congress government in Telangana has put its annual need and the new mechanism on the table; the BJP can start by keeping one number for more than a press conference.