Imitation is the best form of flattery: KTR

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) manifesto for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections is a copy of various welfare and development schemes being implemented by the Telangana government, IT minister K.T. Rama Rao tweeted on Friday.

Mr Rao’s tweet said, “Imitation is the best form of flattery: Delighted that various welfare and development schemes of Telangana government have been picked up by BJP in Karnataka polls.”Listing the schemes that were copied, Mr Rao said Mission Kakatiya became Mission Kalyani, and Kalyana Lakshmi was Vivaha Mangala Yojana, while the BJP had also borrowed the idea of waiving farm loans of Rs 1 lakh.

Mr Rao said TS-iPASS inspired single window clearance for industries, K-Hub was inspired by T-Hub, and Mukhya Mantri Annapurna Canteens draws from Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s (GHMC) Annapurna initiative. Mr Rao posted pages of the BJP’s manifesto to prove the schemes have been copied.Interestingly, the GHMC’s Annapurna scheme, which offers meals for Rs 5, was originally inspired by late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa’s Amma Canteens scheme. Now, Mr Rao seems to be mocking the BJP for copying it in Karnataka.

Even the Telugu Desam government in Andhra Pradesh has adopted this scheme and renamed as Anna Canteens after late Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao, fondly known as Anna (elder brother).As the Karnataka Assembly polls draw near, social media has been abuzz with how parties are copying each other’s schemes and rebranding them. A tweet reads, “The Karnataka BJP borrows and rebrands a good deal from Karnataka Congress government schemes. Their lack of imagination is astonishing.”

The Congress has posted about how the current NDA government at the Centre has rebranded the UPA government’s schemes, and listed how Indira Awas Yojana of UPA was rebranded Prime Minister Awas Yojana, Nirmal Bharat Abhiyaan as Swachh Bharat Mission, Skill Development Mission as Skill India, JNNURM as Amrut scheme, DBT for LPG as Pahal, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana as Paramparagat Krishi Yojana, among others.