The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has demanded that Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde specify the agenda for the all-party meeting on Telangana convened by him in New Delhi on December 28. Otherwise, the meeting will be an exercise in futility.
The party has written a letter to Mr. Shinde on Friday asking him to elicit the clear opinion of Congress and Telugu Desam. Addressing a press conference here, CPI (M) State secretary B.V. Raghavulu declared that they would take a decision on participating in the all-party meeting only after getting a response from Mr. Shinde to the letter. They would wait till December 25 for the response.
Mr. Raghavulu said that without specifying any agenda for the meeting the Centre would be wasting its time and money as well as that of the participants. Meeting sans any objectives would send a signal that it was convened only to appease some Congress MPs who tried to revolt before the crucial voting in Parliament on the FDI bill.
Besides, it would also give credence to the comments of another Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad that Mr. Shinde had convened the meeting only to know about the issue as he had taken up Home portfolio recently.
Meanwhile, State secretary of CPI K. Narayana said giving statehood to Telangana was the only solution to end the present imbroglio in the State. Dr. Narayana and MLA G. Mallesh would represent the party at the all-party meeting.
