Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha Member V Hanumantha Rao while condemning the desecration of statues during the Million March on the Tank Bund on Thursday, cautioned party leaders against falling in the ‘trap’ of Seemandhra leaders and react angrily to their provocations.
Citing the ‘challenge’ of Seemandhra leader Kavuri Sambhasiva Rao as an example of the attempts to provoke the Telangana leaders, Mr Hanumantha Rao alleged that the Seemandhra leaders were attempt to sow seeds of distrust between people of the three regions so that they can get help in their fight to stop the Andhra Pradesh from being bifurcated.
The MP raised the question before media persons at his residence as to why the party leaders from Seemandhra regions were silent when former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy had taken permission from the party High Command to enter into a political alliance with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi in 2001. He reminded that the Seemandhra leaders had remained silent at that time and even later when the bifurcation demand was mentioned in the party’s manifesto for the 2004 general elections.
Mr Hanumantha Rao pointed out that the attempts to create a rift between people in the region could have been successfully curbed if the state police had handled the Million March more tactfully.
He said that the police could have given permission to hold the Million March at the Parade Grounds rather than denying permission for the massive rally to be held at the Tank Bund.
This would have prevented the damage to the statues, especially in light of the fact that the police claimed that it had prior leads that something of this sort would have happened.
Reacting to the new political party launched by former Kadapa MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy, Mr Hanumantha Rao said that many people had left the Congress and tried to make a successful career in politics but had invariably come back to rejoin the parent party. He said that the Congress would survive like it had been since the past 125 years.