HYDERABAD: Denouncing prime minister Narendra Modi’s comments on Telangana state formation in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) held protest across the state.
Several ministers, MLAs, MPs and party leaders participated in the protests by organizing bike rallies in various districts and burnt the effigies of BJP. Apart from TRS leaders, Telangana Gazetted Officers association and some high court advocates held demonstrations on the PM’s remarks calling it was nothing but insulting the people of Telangana and decades of struggle to achieve separate statehood.
The TRS gave a call for all its leaders and workers to hold protests in all mandal and assembly constituencies against Modi's remarks on Telangana. Some TRS supporters tweeted against Modi and the BJP with a hashtag #ModiEnemyOfTelangana, which became trending in the country for several hours. Within an hour, over 25,000 TRS supporters tweeted with the hashtag #ModiEnemyOfTelangana.
Finance minister T Harish Rao tweeted the BJP without having majority and despite stiff opposition from the opposition parties and farmers, the NDA government had cleared farm bills, was it constitutionally correct? And 33 parties have supported the Telangana formation and the AP Reorganization 2014 was wrong. It was achieved with the struggle led by KCR. Is it correct to insult the four crore of Telangana people’s dream?, he said.
Another minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav said there was a conspiracy behind PM Modi’s remarks to merge both Telangana and AP. He along with other TRS minister Mohd Mahmood Ali, MLAs Maganti Gopinath, Danam Nagender, Kaleru Venkatesh, Muta Gopal and MLC MS Prabhakar held demonstration at Gandhi statue on MG Road, Secunderabad and took out rally till Gun Park near Assembly. He said BJP has the habit of creating rift between castes, communities, religions and now between AP and Telangana by making remarks on Telangana formation.
Minister Gangula Kamalakar conducted bike rally from Markfed ground to Telangana chowk in Karimnagar by wearing black badges and burnt the effigy of BJP. Kamalakar questioned the Modi had he taken decisions such as demonetization, lockdown, GST and farm laws by consulting all the 130 crore people. Other ministers G Jagadish Reddy in Suryapet, V Srinivas Goud in Mahbubnagar, S Niranjan Reddy in Wanaparty, A Indrakaran Reddy in Nirmal, Errabelli Dayakar Rao in Palakurthy constituency participated in the protest programmes.
Niranjan Reddy said both BJP and Congress had accepted for separate statehood for Telangana after 33 parties supported it as they had no choice. Even there were debates both in the assembly and outside apart from several commissions and committees appointed in it, the minister said. Telangana Public Undertakings Committee (PUC) chairman A Jeevan Reddy said people understood the conspiracy by BJP and would give befitting reply to the saffron party. “Modi did not do his duty Raja Dharma as Gujarat CM and now not doing his Rajyanga Dharma (Constitutional obligation) as PM,” Jeevan Reddy said
