A piquant situation prevailed in the Assembly on Tuesday as the Treasury benches and the main Opposition Congress vied for owning up Telangana statehood to their own parties and got into a slugfest.
Finance Minister Etala Rajender, Leader of Opposition K Jana Reddy and IT Minister K T Rama Rao almost indulged in a wordy duel taking the whole House into a tizzy situation by trying to clarify as to how in Telangana dialect a few words are used. Jana Reddy objected to Rajender for using “Naa Telangana” words and said it is ‘Maa Telangana’ instead of “Mana Telangana”, he said.
The House suddenly got heated up when Leader of the Opposition K Jana Reddy hastened to add that the Congress in the State and at the Centre could have suppressed with iron hand the Telangana movement but abstained from doing so. With this, when Rajender was trying to give a rebuff to the Congress leader, IT & MAUD Minister KT Rama Rao intervened and expressed grief at Jana Reddy’s provocative comments which are not up to his stature and sought withdrawal of the same.
It all happened when Finance Minister Etala Rajender said Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao came up with Mission Bhagiratha scheme to provide water to “My Telangana” sisters who should not come on to the roads to get water, Leader of Opposition K Jana Reddy unexpectedly stood and objected to the minister’s remark. For a while, Jana Reddy lost his cool and got emotional by saying that it was not “Naa Telangana” and said Maa (Congress) Telangana instead of Mana Telangana.
On this, KTR said there was nothing wrong in using the words of Naa Telangana which means mine and ours in broader sense. He also recited that Dasharathi cited through his verses that “Naa Telangana Koti Rathanala Veena” means, our region should be flourished with abundance. Similarly, KCR said the State government was making efforts for transforming “Naa Telangana into Koti acres Magana” (to irrigate one crore acres over five years). KTR urged Jana Reddy to withdraw his belittling remarks that the Congress regime at the State and the Centre could have suppressed the statehood movement.
KTR observed that the Congress regime did not feel good of Telangana statehood, got married forcibly with Andhra in 1956, caused 370 deaths in 1969 movement and deliberately delayed statehood from 2004 to 2014. “What Rajender said was not at all wrong as it is the language we use to utter sometimes which cannot be faulted”, KTR added.
Earlier, Speaker S Madhusudana Chary took up short discussion on Mission Bhagiratha – the water program. Congress deputy leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka took potshots at the project saying that he has doubts besides irregularities. (NSS)