Hyderabad, June 01: Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj Tuesday urged the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to bring a bill for formation of separate Telangana state in the next parliament session, assuring support from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other constituents of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Addressing a public meeting at Karimnagar Tuesday night, she said if the government brings a bill in the parliament session beginning in July, she would ensure that it is passed with two-third majority.
Stating that she had come to the region to draw the battle-lines, Sushma Swaraj reminded Telangana MPs of Congress party of June 1 deadline set by them for their party leadership to make a clear-cut announcement on the Telangana bill.
The BJP leader said her party would not rest till a separate state is achieved. “If the government brings a bill in parliament, we are ready to support it but if it fails to do so we will bring the bill and pass it after we come to power,” she said.
She said ever since the forcible merger with the Andhra region in 1956, the people of Telangana got only commissions, committees, formulas, documents, promises and assurances.
On the Srikrishna committee, the BJP leader said it crossed all the limits by suggesting to the government the Telangana movement be suppressed through political and media management.
“I am ashamed at reading the contents of the secret eighth chapter of the report, in which the committee expressed the apprehension that separate Telangana state will become a Maoist state or a BJP-ruled state,” she said.
She however said by supporting the demand for separate Telangana state, she was not opposing the people of Andhra and pointed out that three new states were carved out during BJP-led NDA rule.
Sushma Swaraj said the demand for Telangana state arose from the imbalanced growth, injustices and discrimination. She termed the movement for separate state a struggle to keep alive the region’s culture and its own identity.
“If it is not a fight for self-esteem, 600 people would not have laid down their lives and citizens from all walks of life would not have come on to the streets,” she said.
–IANS–