Hyderabad, January 09: Senior Telangana Congress leader and MP V Hanumantha Rao today asserted that they (Telangana Congress MPs) would not take ‘hasty decisions’ on the separate Telangana issue and would first place the views of the people of Telangana before a meeting to be convened by the Congress core committee member and Union minister Pranab Mukherjee by this month end. He noted that during the last meeting, the MPs had already made it clear to Pranab that they could not go to the people if the Centre goes back on the statement it made on December 9, 2009.
Talking to mediapersons at his residence here, Hanumantha Rao, in reply to a query, informed that in the last meeting, Pranab Mukherjee had asked the Telangana MPs to first read the Srikrishna committee report fully before putting forward their views. Except for fifth option given by the report, the other five options were not in favour of Telangana, he said. The situation has completely changed in the region after the Centre’s statement last year and the movement has spread to the grassroots level. ‘Divisions and differences’ have come up between several sections of the society, including employees working in the state Secretariat. Differences were also seen among the MPs and MLAs belonging to Telangana and Seemandhra regions. “We (Telangana MPs) have already made it clear to the party leadership that we and the people of the region have only a one-point programme which is the creation of a separate state. At yesterday’s Telangana Congress leaders’ meeting, the MPs present did not talk in extreme terms but it was the MLAs, who face more pressure, who were talking about resignations. I will talk only after attending Pranab’s meeting,” he added.
About the restrictions imposed on the media and the deployment of para-military forces in Osmania University and other places in Telangana, the leader said that the media had the responsibility of covering the incidents taking place inside the University. Other than the photographers and TV channels belonging to the Telangana region, others were not going to cover it, he pointed out.
He said that there was a scope for an increase in clashes between the students and police due to the presence of forces in the campus. The chief minister has to decide on the withdrawal of forces, he said.
Meanwhile, Seemandhra minister D L Ravindra Reddy made it clear that he would abide by whatever the party high command decides on the Telangana issue. “All the party MLAs belonging to Telangana and Seemandhra have decided to follow the directives of Congress leadership. As a disciplined party worker I will support and vote if a resolution is moved in the Assembly. I am happy even if the state is divided or united. I have no objection”, he added.
–Agencies