Telangana Political JAC chairman Prof. M. Kodandaram has severely condemned the statement of Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde that there was no deadline for announcing a decision on the Telangana issue. He said Shinde’s statement that the Centre would continue talks on Telangana with all concerned was highly objectionable.
Participating in the TPJAC bus yatra in Mahbubnagar district on Tuesday on second day, Prof. Kodandaram condemned the Union Home Minister’s “change of tongue” now as he had given a categorical assurance at the all-party meeting in New Delhi on December 28 that he would announce the decision within a month.
Declaring that the people of Telangana would wrest separate State with intensified struggle, Prof. Kodandaram said the disheartened youth in the Telangana region were committing suicides due to the failure of the Congress-led UPA government in keeping its promise. He said the Centre has bounden duty to render justice to Telangana people by announcing separate State on time, otherwise more and more innocent youths might take to the extreme step if the Centre put the issue in the cold storage.
Pointing out that the Congress had assured to carve out Telangana State in its manifesto on the eve of 2004 elections and the same had figured in the Presidential address to joint session of Parliament after it returned to power, Prof. Kodandaram said the argument that similar demands for smaller States would increase if Telangana was granted statehood, has no meaning and substance. He charged the Union Home Minister with talking about “further talks needed” due to the pressure by the Seemandhra leaders.
The TPJAC leader also lashed out at the actor turned Union Tourism Minister K. Chiranjeevi for stating that the people of Telangana would forget about their demand by 2014 general elections. He asked Chiranjeevi to recollect his own statement after forming his defunct “Praja Rajyam” that he was committed to Social Telangana. The people of Telangana still remember about his declaration on Telangana, he added.
–Agencies