Committee on Telangana an Eye-wash: Lok Satta

The Chief Minister’s statement in the Assembly on constituting a committee on Telangana is aimed at reaping electoral advantage and not at respecting people’s sentiments, said the Lok Satta Party here today.

The Congress, which had contested the 2004 elections on the Telangana plank in alliance with the TRS, is now forced to go it alone because it did not bother to fulfill its promises on Telangana. Unable to answer the people in Telangana, the party is seeking a face-saver, party Vice President J. Irama Murthy and Secretary K. Gita Murthy told the media.

The Lok Satta accused the Chief Minister of deceiving people of all regions by recalling he had talked about objections to the formation of a separate Telangana from minorities and people of other regions and indicated to them that the division of the State was not on the cards. What was the point in appointing yet another committee since a committee headed by Union Minister Pranab Mukherjee is already seized of the issue, they asked.

The Lok Satta said that all the traditional parties are playing with Telangana people’s sentiments for electoral gains and said the change in the Telugu Desam Party’s support to Telangana too is not aimed at honoring their sentiments. Taking the people for a ride in the name of Telangana is not pardonable, although the issue whether a separate State will transform people’s lives in Telangana is debatable.

Far from evaluating the Government’s performance over the last five years in the last session of the legislature, the parties had wasted precious time wrangling and unveiled the shape of things to come if they were re-elected.