RS Praveen Kumar, a former IPS officer who recently resigned as Bahujana Samaj Party (BSP) Telangana state chief, joined Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) here on Monday in the presence of KCR on March 18.
Speaking to the media, RS Praveen Kumar thanked former CM K. Chandrashekar Rao, expressed his desire to work with him, and also stuck to his core principles of Dalit-centric politics. He appealed to his followers to trust his decision to change the party from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to the BRS.
Just days before, on March 15, RS Praveen Kumar stated on X about their alliance: “The BSP is going to fight General Elections-2024 in two seats, NagarKurnool (SC) and Hyderabad (Gen) in Telangana.
It’s Official now. #BSP is going to fight General Elections-2024 in two(2) seats, NagarKurnool (SC) and Hyderabad(Gen) in Telangana. #BRS is going to field its candidates in remaining constituencies. Both the parties are going to work together for victory in all the…
— Dr.RS Praveen Kumar (@RSPraveenSwaero) March 15, 2024
Following this alliance statement, there was a lot of criticism of RS Praveen Kumar, resulting in a split in the BSP cadre and his followers across the state and raising suspicions about his political stand and consistency.
In the meantime, KCR daughter MLC Kavitha was arrested on March 16 as one of the accused in a money laundering case related to the Delhi liquor scam. Reacting to this, RS Praveen Kumar tweeted supporting Kavitha, claiming her to be innocent and a political victim in the hands of the BJP.
Quickly, on social media, netizens started sharing RSP’s old tweets where he questioned the BJP for delaying arresting the Delhi liquor scam accused MLC Kavitha. These two contradictory statements have dramatically changed politics and raised questions about RS Praveen Kumar’s political stand.
ఢిల్లీ మద్యం కుంభకోణంలో తెలంగాణ ముఖ్యమంత్రి కేసీఆర్ కూతురు ఎమ్మెల్సీ @RaoKavitha అరెస్ట్ ఇక లేనట్లేనా?
మనీ లాండరింగ్ కేసులో ప్రధాన నిందితుడు సుఖేశ్ చంద్రశేఖర్ ₹80 కోట్లు క్రిప్టోకరెన్సీ,హవాలా ద్వారా కవితకు ముడుపులు చెల్లించినట్లు వాంగ్మూలం ఇచ్చిన సాక్షాలు @dir_ed వద్ద అన్ని… pic.twitter.com/Rjkpu0cWRq— Dr.RS Praveen Kumar (@RSPraveenSwaero) May 25, 2023
On March 17, speaking to the media, CM Revant Reddy, during his press conference on completing his 100 days in power, invited RS Praveen Kumar to join the Congress government. On the same day, BRS MLA Danam Nagender and Chevella BRS MP G Ranjith Reddy joined Congress.
Rejecting this offer, and all of a sudden RSP has officially joined BRS, appealing to his followers to trust his political journey and decisions repeatedly.
The journey of RS Praveen Kumar has different phases, one as a decorated IPS officer for 17 years and then a break to pursue higher studies in the US in Masters in Public Administration under the Mason Program at the Kennedy School at Harvard University. After his return from America, he chose to be the secretary of the Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWEIR) by choice in July 2012.
Since then, from 2012 to 2021, he has changed his approach to life and politics. During his tenure as Chairman of TSWEIR, a non-profit education organisation called Swaero Circle Society (SCS) was formed. SCS is the brainchild of Swaeroes International, under the guidance of Dr. R.S. Praveen Kumar. The activities of SCS are quite similar and resemble all the activities of TSWEIR schools. To execute all these day-to-day affairs, several projects like infrastructure, stationery, food supplies, and contract staff were required. To control and channelize this external support, this SWEARO network comes into the picture.
Parallel to academics, it is alleged that RS Praveen Kumar instructed the members of SWAEROES to remove the photos of national leaders like Gandhiji, Nehru, Lal Bahadur Sastry, Subhash Chandra Bose, Sarojini Naidu, etc., from all its schools. In one of the incidents, they also removed a photo of Sant Seva Lal, who is revered as a holy guru by the Lambada community (STs) school at Narsapur, Medak District. SWEAROS is sidelining the original Teachers Day celebrations and promoting their own days at government institutions. Gurukula Guruvulaku Sammanam; creating a bank-like structure: SMACCS, where members of the SWEARO network are advised to deposit their amounts into this bank.
The biggest damage to his SWERO ideology was slowly distancing the students of social welfare schools from their cultural roots and influencing their subconscious minds, which made them not trust other caste people permanently.
Then suddenly, he announced a voluntary retirement and resigned from his post as secretary of TSWREIS and TTWREIS in July 2021, subsequently joining BSP as state president in August 2021. Since then, he has been active under the banner of the Bahujan Samaj Party, with the slogan of “Dalits and Bahujans striving to achieve political power” in the state.
During his tenure as BSP state president, he tried to twist all the political developments through a caste and religious lens. Recently, he tried to twist the church land encroachment case into a fight between Christians and non-Christians in the village.
This controversial journey and RS Praveen Kumar’s change in political stand are coming under heavy scrutiny and credibility in his politics.
