Telugu Desam Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu walked out of the National Integration Council meeting here on Monday, in protest against the UPA government not allowing him to raise the unrest in Andhra Pradesh over Telangana caused by the Congress’s “mishandling.”
Later, he told journalists that UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi had ‘signalled’ that his speech be interrupted, following which both Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram objected to his raising the Telangana issue, which was not on the agenda.
Mr. Naidu wondered why he was stopped, when the former Chief Minister of Assam, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, spoke about the law and order problem in his State caused by the Bodoland agitation. Mr. Naidu criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for failing to resolve the Telangana issue amicably. “How do you ensure national integration if 10 crore Telugus all over the country develop hatred among themselves?”
The former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh reiterated his charge that the CBI had become the ‘Congress Bureau of Investigation.’ If the government wished, those who were opposed to it or those who did not toe its line would be put behind bars ‘misusing the investigating agency.’ Similarly, if it wished, persons would come out of jail, and cases against them would be watered down by the agency in court, Mr. Naidu alleged.
