A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi jokingly asked Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to “join” him, the latter has said that there was no hint of “politics” in the exchange.

“This was not a political invitation, but one which went beyond politics. We were both speaking about the development of the country and Telangana… As the Prime Minister of the country, PM Modi asked me, in my capacity as Chief Minister of Telangana, to join him in development work. Any other interpretation is not warranted,” CM Reddy said, while interacting with media persons in Hyderabad on Monday afternoon.

On Sunday, during an event attended by both leaders in Hyderabad, Modi addressed Reddy during his speech and said with a smile, “Whatever the central government (under former prime minister Manmohan Singh) gave Gujarat in 10 years (when Modi was Gujarat CM), I am also ready to give you… But the state will then be left with half of what it is securing from the Centre now, and you will not be able to achieve your goals. That’s why it is better you join me.” Modi was referring to a request made by Reddy in the latter’s speech earlier that the Modi government should support Telangana like the Manmohan Singh government supported Gujarat.

Reddy said on Monday, “I was talking about PM Manmohan Singh and the spirit that he showed Narendra Modi when he was the chief minister of Gujarat for 10 years. I was only indicating that the same constructive spirit should be extended to me in developing Telangana.”

Reddy pointed out that the event in which the exchange took place was one in which Modi was inaugurating several development projects in Telangana upon the request of the Telangana CM’s Office. “This was not a political event,” Reddy clarified, adding that he would like a “good relationship between the Centre and the state, as far as development goes”. The exchange was merely about development and not about politics, he stressed.

After making the clarification, Reddy came down heavily on PM Modi for a statement the latter made during the BJP’s public meeting held at Parade Grounds in Secunderabad on Sunday. At the event, Modi had referred to the Congress as “MMC”, or “Muslim League, Maoist Congress”, claiming the party was “more Muslim than the Muslim League and more Left than the Left.”

Criticising the remarks, Reddy asked, “Aren’t Muslims and Maoists citizens of this country?”

“Maoists have a different philosophy and ideology than us. But they cannot be killed just because their worldview differs from ours, because they are citizens of the country… The Congress party believes in saving every single life. As a party whose leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, had lost their lives to extremism, we know the value of lives,” Revanth Reddy said.

“The BJP is British Janata Party, because it believes in divide and rule on the basis of caste, race, creed and religion,” Reddy said.

The Telangana CM said the Prime Minister, before making statements about Congress-Maoist links, should realise that the highest number of surrenders of Maoists, that too top Maoists, took place in Telangana in the previous year. “We believe in making the Maoists leave their ideology of bullet against ballot and return to the mainstream. We, at the Congress, do not believe in finishing them off because they are different,” Reddy said, adding, “Killing people is not development or reform.”

Soon after, the CM said Prime Minister Modi’s suggestion of austerity measures on account of the “war in the neighbourhood” should be considered a failure of the BJP government. “This is the failure of the central government, the Narendra Modi government. It is a governance debacle that citizens are being asked to adopt austerity measures because the government has not been able to take responsibility for the economic impact the war has had on India. This is shirking of responsibility,” Reddy said.

He added that the Centre should immediately call a stakeholders’ meeting to discuss the war and the measures the government has to take to prevent the suffering of citizens. “We (Congress) have seen several wars and have dealt with them in a better way. We have experts who can advise the government on how to deal with the impact of the war. PM Modi should call for a meeting with experts, including the Opposition, on how to mitigate the effects of war. His statements merely show how the BJP has no roadmap to deal with the war,” Reddy said.