HYDERABAD: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president and MP A. Revanth Reddy accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of insulting the people of Telangana by making 'baseless' and 'irrelevant' references to the state during his speech on Presidential address in Parliament.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday, Revanth Reddy said Modi was anti-Telangana who questioned the very formation of the state. He said Modi was neither aware of Telangana's history nor the Parliamentary procedures. Modi was apparently unaware that voting on a Bill in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha was done by keeping all doors closed till the completion of the process. “He is an 'illiterate' and totally ignorant of these procedures,” Revanth Reddy said.
He said speeches of Primes Ministers including Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh and others used to be of very high standard and the common people used to listen to them with great interest and curiosity. However, Modi brought disrespect to the post of Prime Minister by indulging in extremely cheap and dirty politics in his speeches, he said.
Revanth Reddy said the people of Telangana expected the Central government to fulfil the promises that were made in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act at the time of Telangana formation in 2014. While no such assurance was given in the budget speech, Narendra Modi, in his reply to the Presidential address, spoke 'nonsense' which did not suit the stature of the Prime Minister.
"More than 1,200 people sacrificed their lives for the Telangana statehood cause. The BJP is directly responsible for those deaths which could've been avoided if the BJP would've fulfilled its promise of giving statehood to Telangana during its rule from 1999-2004. Instead of apologising for this sin, Modi is questioning the Congress for creating Telangana state," he said.
The TPCC president said despite huge opposition from within the party and an unavoidable political loss, Sonia Gandhi granted statehood for Telangana. “Modi can never understand the meaning of commitment and sacrifice," he said.
He demanded that union minister G. Kishan Reddy, BJP state president Bandi Sanjay and Nizamabad MP D. Arvind should also resign from their posts for the remarks of the Prime Minister on Telangana state. He also slammed the TRS MPs for remaining silent in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha when Modi made serious remarks against Telangana state.
