Within 24 hours of dubbing the all-party meeting as “useless”, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday welcomed the Centre’s decision to come out with a result on statehood issue in a month.
However, in the same breath, he expressed scepticism that the government would concede the demand for bifurcation of the State.
Replying to a question at a press conference after a meeting of the politburo of TRS here, Mr. Rao said he welcomed the one-month deadline if it was meant to work out plans for creation of Telangana State but that would not happen. The TRS wanted nothing short of Telangana State with Hyderabad as capital, he asserted.
New drama
He accused the Centre of promising a solution on Telangana without coming up with a roadmap. This was a new drama enacted by Congress.
He faulted Congress, Telugu Desam and YSR Congress for failing miserably in coming out with a solution to the ticklish issue. While Mr. Shinde’s word on one month could be taken as that of Congress, the YSR Congress did not talk about formation of Telangana State at all. The Telugu Desam did not seek Telangana State anywhere in its letter handed over to Mr. Shinde in a sealed cover. The word Telangana was written at only one place in the whole letter.
Mr. Rao described the letter of TDP as hollow, lacking commitment on separate Telangana. The TDP again resorted to deceiving tactics.
He announced that the TRS would launch an agitation during the one month which would culminate in a public meeting at Wanaparthy in Mahabubnagar district on January 30.
The programme included motorcycle rallies in all villages on January 4, torchlight demonstrations in mandal headquarter villages on January 9, hunger strike camps in Assembly headquarters on January 17 and dharnas before Collectorates on January 23.
