‘Criminal waste’? Apologise, says KTR
KTR has written to Rahul Gandhi after a report quoted CM Revanth Reddy describing engineering graduates in Hyderabad with the phrase “criminal waste”. The BRS leader asked Revanth to apologise to students and told Rahul to stop the lectures on “democracy” while he stays silent.
The dispute over an alleged remark has put student employability and political accountability in the same queue.
BRS working president K. T. Rama Rao has written to Rahul Gandhi after a report quoted Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy using the phrase “criminal waste” while discussing engineering graduates and employability. In the letter, KTR asked Revanth to apologise to students and held Rahul “politically and morally” responsible for his Chief Minister’s words. The letter also told Rahul to “stop lecturing on democracy and constitutional morality” while staying quiet on this. (According to the report, the full letter was not released.)
The report attributes to Revanth that some engineering graduates “can’t even fill out a job application” and cites a figure of nearly 1.1 lakh engineering students graduating each year. Online discussion threads repeat the “criminal waste” line, but they are not official transcripts; the full recording has not surfaced in the sources we could access. What is on the record is KTR’s demand for an apology to students and his charge that Rahul’s silence is a choice.
Context: the Congress government has itself said fewer than 10% of engineering graduates land jobs, blaming missing skills while promising an overhaul. That is a policy debate. Calling the kids “criminal waste” — if that is what the Chief Minister meant — is something else entirely, and it is Telangana’s students who take the hit while the Congress leadership keeps its head down.
The Congress and Rahul Gandhi have not bothered to answer KTR’s letter yet; Revanth Reddy has not issued a clarification or apology in the sources available.