With the agitation for separate Telangana intensifying in Andhra Pradesh, the BJP today exerted pressure on the Centre to bring a bill for carving out a new state and accused Congress of “betraying” people of the region.
Raising the issue in the Rajya Sabha during Zero Hour, Prakash Javadekar said, “If the government brings a bill for separate Telangana, we will support it without doing the vote politics.”
He said while the demand for creation of Telangana has been there for last 50 years, the Congress in 2004 had assured its erstwhile ally TRS that the separate state would be formed. “They came into power. But they never brought the bill. TRS kept on hoping that Madam (Sonia Gandhi) would do something but nothing happened,” Javadekar said.
He said Telgu Desam Party (TDP), which was earlier opposed to the division of Andhra Pradesh is also supporting the Telangana statehood now.
The BJP member said the people of the region, who feel betrayed, have come out in the streets. People of Telangana “are feeling betrayed continuously. This policy of betrayal should end at least now,” he said. “Universities, colleges, schools are all closed. Agitating farmers and traders are up in arms,” he added.
The TRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao, spearheading the Telangana movement has been shifted to a hospital after he began an indefinite fast. Telangana is considered to be the most under-developed among the three regions in Andhra Pradesh.
