Hyderabad, December 23: In his inimitable style, controversial Congress MP from Vijayawada Lagadapati Rajagopal finally called off his ‘‘fake’’ fast-unto-death, by his own admission, here on Tuesday.
‘‘I was on a real, Mahatma Gandhi deeksha (hunger strike) for five days and seven hours till December 20th evening when police forcibly broke my camp and admitted me to the Government hospital in Vijayawada where doctors administered IV fluids to me,’’ he explained at a press conference here.
Justifying his dramatic ‘‘escape’’ from the hospital in Vijayawada to the State capital, he said he had come to the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) as he was in need of good treatment after his hunger strike was foiled. ‘‘The government on the advice of the police refused to let me get admitted to NIMS. I am a citizen of India and an MP. I am free to get treatment wherever I like. How can the government not allow me? Am I a terrorist?’’ Rajagopal asked and said he came to NIMS only to prove a point.
Turning the tables on TRS chief K Chandrasekhara Rao, the MP claimed that he ‘‘continued’’ his fast at the NIMS to ‘‘expose’’ the separatist leader. ‘‘One can live on fluids and on what is called in medical parlance as parenteral nutrition for 30 years without having solid food. The fast I had undertaken in Vijayawada was genuine and Gandhian. The one I did in Hyderabad is the modern type of deeksha, a fake one in which K Chandrasekhara Rao had excelled,’’ he said.
The TRS chief was on a genuine hunger strike for only a day-and-ahalf which ended in Khammam after he had fruit juice, Rajagopal alleged and added that thereafter Chandrasekhara Rao continued fake fast accepting IV fluids. ‘‘On the other hand,’’ the MP claimed, ‘‘I was on a genuine fast for five days.’’ He also claimed to have lost a weight of almost 7 kg.
Explaining at length on why he ‘‘slipped’’ out of the hospital in Vijayawada, he said the doctors there had given him details of what fluids they had administered to him and claimed that he had considered that medical sheet as a discharge slip.
‘‘I had to come to Hyderabad like a fugitive. I travelled through Telangana districts and reached NIMS with the help of Telangana people,’’ the Congress leader said and disapproved of the suspension of Vijayawada Police Commissioner KV Rajendranath Reddy and five other police officials.
He called off his fake deeksha in the presence of reporters and immediately afterwards, said he would undertake another fast-untodeath in Visakhapatnam if the Centre didn’t come out with a solution acceptable to all.
He reiterated that he had no chief ministerial ambitions and that he would quit politics for good if the State was bifurcated. Asked if he would abide by the Centre’s decision to divide the State, he replied in the negative saying he would continue to fight for a united State.
–Agencies