Six newborns dead. More than twenty others injured. And the official explanation, according to BRS working president K. T. Rama Rao, is mice. On Wednesday, October 14, 2026, KTR turned to X to deliver a searing indictment of the Telangana Congress government over what he described as a catastrophic failure of neonatal care at a government hospital. Posting in a mix of Telugu and English, KTR opened with a sharp Telugu barb — 'నల్లమల పిల్లి కనీసం ఎలుకలు కూడా పట్టలేదా?' ('Did the Nallamala cat fail to even catch mice?') — a pointed idiom questioning whether those in charge could handle even the most basic duty. He then shifted registers entirely: 'Is this how you abdicate responsibility after killing 6 infants and injuring more than 20 infants in NICU!! Blame it on Mice?' The post was accompanied by an image and tagged with the hashtag #CongressFailedTelangana.

The Allegation: Mice in an NICU, Six Infants Dead

The NICU — a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the last line of defence for premature and critically ill newborns — is among the most controlled environments in any hospital. The suggestion that rodent activity played a role in infant deaths or injuries in such a facility, if substantiated, would represent an extraordinary breakdown in hospital hygiene and infrastructure standards. KTR's post implies that the Telangana health department had offered rodent presence as part of its explanation for the tragedy, a framing he denounced as blame-shifting. The specific details of the incident — the hospital name, the exact sequence of events, and the government's formal response — are under active reporting and an official version from the state health department is awaited. KTR's post does not name the specific facility.

BRS vs Congress: A Healthcare Accountability Battle

This is not the first time neonatal care has become a flashpoint between BRS and the Congress-led Telangana government that came to power after the 2023 assembly elections. Opposition parties across Indian states have consistently used high-visibility healthcare failures to challenge ruling governments on infrastructure and accountability — and KTR, as BRS working president and a former minister who held charge over major state departments, carries both the political standing and the institutional memory to press that case hard. The 'Nallamala cat' metaphor carries a specific regional resonance. The Nallamala forest region of Telangana has long been associated with a certain wildness and self-sufficiency. KTR's use of the idiom — essentially mocking the government as a predator that cannot even perform its most basic function — is designed to sting, not just report.

What the Telangana Health Department Must Now Answer

The political noise aside, the core demand is institutional: an independent inquiry, a clear cause-of-death determination, and a published report on the NICU's hygiene and infrastructure standards. Families of the six infants who died, and the parents of the more than twenty reported injured, deserve an authoritative answer that goes beyond political crossfire. Official inquiry reports from the Telangana health department and statements from state ministers are the next critical data points. Six children did not come home. That fact sits at the centre of this story, and no amount of blame-trading changes the urgency of the question it demands: who is accountable, and what will actually change?