The Central government is playing to the tunes of Tamil Nadu regarding a foreign affairs matter that has to be decided by it while rudely brushing aside the demand of Seemandhra people to keep Andhra Pradesh unified, founder and National president of Lok Satta party N. Jayaprakash Narayan said here on Tuesday.
“The Congress party does not bother to respect the feelings of the people of Andhra Pradesh who helped it to win two consecutive elections to the Lok Sabha but when people of other States dictate terms to it, it would oblige them. This is for political reasons and not democracy but dictatorship. It could not convince its own MLAs and MPs and has not taken the Assembly into confidence,” Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan said at a press conference.
It was necessary on the part of Centre to hold exhaustive discussions with all sections of people, students, employees and others of Uttarandhra, south coastal districts and Rayalaseema and solve the issue. Federal system cannot be destroyed, the Lok Satta leader felt.
He also took strong exception to the Centre seeking opinion from political parties since they had lost connection with the people.
The people’s representatives must abide by the decision of the people and not their respective parties, he added.
Stressing that bifurcation of a State must be done with the consent of people, Dr. Jayaprakash recalled that the Centre followed the Sarkaria Commission’s recommendations that a State must be bifurcated after its Assembly was convinced, in the case of several States except Punjab since Assembly was not functioning in the State then.
Even the then Chief Minister of Bihar Lalu Prasad Yadav, who said bifurcation of the State could be done over his body, was convinced and a unanimous resolution was passed by the Bihar Assembly allowing bifurcation of the State into Bihar and Jharkhand.
But in AP the bifurcation was being done to gain some seats in Telangana and with the fond hope of Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy winning some seats in Seemandhra area and that he would support the Congress ultimately.
Concentrating development only in Hyderabad and ignoring Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Karimnagar, Warangal or Anantapur was one reason for the present situation, he said.
Political ploy
Every political party would resort to any ploy to come back to power — like late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy making Telangana Congress leaders to raise separate State issue in spite of them telling that the demand did not exist, since it was one way to grab votes after losing two consecutive polls, Dr. Jayaprakash said.
