Hyderabad, February 26: President N. Chandrababu Naidu on Friday asked whether it was wrong on the part of TDP to continue the policy of serving Telugu speaking people for which it was established.
Raising the question while talking to media persons on the issue of separate Telangana, he said he was keen to put it to debate with intellectuals and journalists.
Mr. Naidu regretted that all other parties were trying to gain political mileage in the name of Telangana to ensure that TDP became weak. Even parties which did not see eye to eye wanted to join forces as they had a common enemy in TDP, he said. “We are a disciplined party and will not join either the Congress or TRS,” he remarked. Mr. Naidu referred to these parties when a reporter brought to his notice that the TDP deputy leader in Assembly Nagam Janardhan Reddy had confided about having talks with Congress MLAs in a bid to achieve separate Telangana.
In an informal interaction with media persons earlier in the day, Mr. Reddy had said the TDP was planning to rope in Congress MLAs for a weeklong agitation at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. The talks with them were in process. He also said they will not return to the State without clinching the issue.
Mr. Naidu said it was true that TDP had allowed its leadership in Telangana and coastal districts to take up programmes to reflect the aspirations of people of the respective regions.
However, there was no question of joining either the Congress or TRS. He blamed the Central government for not initiating action on the report submitted by Srikrishna committee with a view to weaken TDP.
‘Match-fixing’
Politics has upstaged the issue of Statehood. This was evident from the “match fixing” between TRS and Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy during the latter’s hunger strike here. The parties are more interested in strengthening themselves rather than address this sensitive issue.