BJP’s ‘48-hour’ fast wraps in 24
Telangana BJP chief N. Ramchander Rao ended his hunger strike in Hyderabad on August 25, vowing to “lay siege” to the Secretariat if fee-reimbursement dues aren’t cleared. The Congress government has yet to publish its own arrears figure; the BJP’s number moved from ₹12,000 crore to ₹15,000 crore in two days.
The protest ended after a day, while the claimed arrears figure rose from ₹12,000 crore to ₹15,000 crore.
N. Ramchander Rao ended his hunger strike at the BJP state office in Nampally on August 25, taking lemon juice from senior leaders and promising the agitation would escalate if fee-reimbursement arrears aren’t paid. The protest, organised by the BJP’s youth wing under “Fees Bakayi—BJP Ladayi”, shifted to the party office after police did not permit a Dharna Chowk demonstration, according to organisers.
The numbers are the point, and also the problem. The BJP told reporters on August 23 it was fighting for around ₹12,000 crore in pending reimbursements; by August 25, Rao was pitching ₹15,000 crore and swearing the “fight against the Congress government will not stop” until that amount is released. Both figures are party claims. The Congress-run state has not put a verifiable arrears total on the record, by scheme, year or category.
The party also says petitions with roughly five lakh student signatures were submitted. That, too, is a BJP count with no public register to check. A separate claim that nearly 20 lakh students are affected was reported as Rao’s assertion. None of this is matched to a government ledger.
What the government has published is allocations: budget heads this year for scholarships and RTF/MTF components exist. What it has not done is answer the basic question the fast was framed around: how much is actually pending, how much has been cleared, and when the rest will be paid. The Congress government in Telangana has not bothered to say — but it did just get a photo-op it didn’t earn.