Hyderabad, January 17: At a time when Telangana Joint Action Committee leaders are increasing the pressure on Congress leaders to resign from their positions as they believe that it is the only way to force the Centre to deliver Telangana, there are a few MPs who find nothing wrong in accepting a berth in the central cabinet, if offered, leave alone quitting the present position.
The sudden change of chorus by the MPs set off speculation over whether the Centre was keen on providing berths to a couple of senior MPs from the region into the cabinet and thus slow down the movement for Telangana state. Peddapalli MP G Vivek felt that accepting berth in the central cabinet cannot be construed as abandoning the Telangana movement.
“I am in favour of cabinet berths to senior MPs who have been elected twice or thrice to the Lok Sabha. As ministers they can bring pressure on the Centre for Telangana cause.’’
As far as he is concerned, he said, he is not keen on any berth and what all he wanted is a Telangana state.
More vocal was Secunderabad MP Anjan Kumar Yadav who has been elected to the Lok Sabha twice.
“What is wrong in taking a berth if offered particularly to backward classes. They (TRS) insist that we should resign and not accept any positions forgetting the fact that there are three MLAs from KCR’s family and KCR himself is a Lok Sabha member. They want to hold on to positions but want the Congress MLAs and MPs to resign. What kind of justice is this?” he asked.
He, however, said that just because one accepted a position of power or a berth in the cabinet it did not mean that one was betraying the Telangana cause. One could fight for Telangana being a minister as well, he said.
Nalgonda MP Gutta Sukhender Reddy said that accepting a position of power or a berth in the central cabinet was secondary.
The first priority is Telangana. “If a berth is offered to a senior Telangana MP, why should he refuse it? The point I want to make is that even if a Telangana MP accepts the offer of a berth in the central cabinet, he should be prepared to lose it for Telangana at any time. In the present context, even if one becomes a minister, he may not be able to continue in that position for more than a couple of months since one has to remain committed to Telangana and it should bet his priority, In such a case one cannot continue as minister for long,” he said. Nizamabad MP Madhu Yashki warned the MPs against ditching the movement after getting into the central cabinet. “The movement is in the hands of the people. If they sense that one is sabotaging the movement after accepting a position of power, one would have to pay a very heavy price,” he said.
–Agencies