KTR opens Telangana's door for Elon Musk, gets mocked on Twitter
One of the users on social media reminded KTR how the state government has been unable to even fix the Warangal Bus Stand in four years even though it was promised on an open platform.
FollowA couple of days ago, Tesla founder stirred the hornet's nest with his remark on micro-blogging platform Twitter about working through a lot of challenges with the government. The remark, which came in response to a query on Tesla's India plans from a user, drew a sharp response from New Delhi. Countering Musk's repeated India to lower import duty on his Tesla cars, government sources said that Tesla was free to use the Production-Linked Incentive window to produce electric vehicles in India.
While Narendra Modi government fumed over Musk's rant, others offered to roll out the red carpet for the Tesla boss. One among them was KT Rama Rao, Telangana's Minister for Urban Development, Industry and Commerce.
While introducing himself to Musk as the Telangana industry and commerce minister, KTR said he would be happy to partner with Tesla in working through the challenges to set shop in the state. Further, he claimed that his state is a top-notch business destination in India and a champion in sustainability initiatives.
The confidence, perhaps, stems from the manner in which the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government scooped up a Rs 2400 crore investment from Kerala-based garments major Kitex group in September last year. At that time, Kitex Group chairman and managing director Sabu M Jacob had said how KTR had convinced him to leave Kerala and set up shop in Telangana.
However, even as he was rolling out the invitation to Musk, KTR was called out by several Twitter users. One of them reminded KTR how the state government has been unable to even fix the Warangal Bus Stand in four years even though it was promised on an open platform. Another user asked KTR to main standard roads first before inviting Musk and sarcastically claimed that Telsa would not work on such "high-quality road".
Another user reminded KTR that Musk was not 'crying for manufacturing sops'. The minister was reminded that there are quite a few domestic manufacturing and indigenous Electic Vehicle companies that could use his government's support.
The Opposition too latched on to the issue with the BJP lashing out at the state industry minister. BJP General Secretary (Andhra Pradesh) Vishnu Vardhan Reddy said, "What is wrong in Modi government asking them not to sell Made in China cars and want them to 'make in India' instead? Also, they want India to accept their terms and conditions and refuse to accept ours. Are we living in colonial-era?"
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