Hyderabad, February 05: Asserting that all Telangana Congress leaders were ready to sacrifice their posts and lives if the terms of reference and time frame of the Central Government’s committee were not in favour of Telangana, former minister and senior leader R Damodar Reddy today remarked that those continuing in the movement for the sake of posts would become `Telangana betrayers’.
He made it clear that the Congress party was still a member of the Telangana political JAC (Joint Action Committee).
Talking to newsmen on the Assembly premises, Damodar Reddy said that their (Telangana Congress MPs, MLAs and MLCs) future action programme (on Telangana issue) would be decided at a meeting to be held in the Assembly Committee Hall on February 6. He exuded confidence that their party president Sonia Gandhi and the Central Government would complete the task at the earliest by immediately announcing the committee’s terms of reference and in fixing a time frame of about 90 days.
It was the media creation that the committee would have three years’ time to complete the task, he said and urged the leaders of Andhra and Rayalaseema to cooperate for the purpose.
Taking strong exception to the proposed padayatra by Samaikyandhra student JAC in the state capital on February 16, the Congress MLA threatened to obstruct the padayatra from Nagarjuna University, Guntur to Hyderabad if it entered the Telangana region. “Nobody will keep quiet if Samaikyandhra activists conduct activities here. We will not allow their agitation in the Telangana region even though the State is still united.
Telangana student JAC is observing the developments. But we will invite the Andhra students if they come as friends.’’ Asked about the Congress high command’s call to party members to come out of the JAC, Damodar Reddy said that the party leadership had never asked them to launch the movement or to convene meetings on Telangana. “Do you (media) think we are separated from the JAC? We will continue in the movement till our goal is achieved’’, he asserted.
Meanwhile, former minister and Secunderabad Cantonment MLA P Shanker Rao warned that the law and order situation might worsen if Samaikyandhra students’ padayatra entered the Telangana region.
“Unlike during the 1969 agitation, people of the region are now fully aware of the developments and are not in a mood to listen to those who oppose Telangana’s separation,’’ he said.
—Agencies