Karimnagar Lok Sabha member Ponnam Prabhakar of the Congress has come out with a point-by-point rebuttal of chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s posers to the President and the prime minister on the process being adopted to divide the state. Here we give the CM’s view and the MP’s counter-view.
Kiran: We expect the government to follow established practices and conventions. As a first step, refer the matter to the Assembly for appropriate resolution.
Ponnam: Article 3 mandates reference of bill by President to Assembly but it does not talk about necessity of resolution by the Assembly.
Kiran: Address the concerns of majority people.
Ponnam: The problem is tyranny perpetuated by majority people on the minority. It is not proper to say that Centre has not addressed the concerns of majority of people. All politicians including the chief minister were consulted and all of them agreed to division to abide by the high command’s decision. They also sought an early end to the issue. The CM, like other opportunist leaders, took a U-turn and defied party discipline.
Kiran: Sharing of river waters and management of major irrigation projects is the major concern.
Ponnam: Major cause of Telangana agitation and today’s problem is because of drawal of excess water through clandestine means by Andhra and Rayalaseema people. Distribution of river waters is already done officially. The Centre has assured several times that water distribution will be done accordingly. The chief minister’s contention is politically motivated.
Kiran: There was no precedent where an existing capital was given away to a newly-created state.
Ponnam: Telangana is not being created anew. It was in existence in the name of Hyderabad state with Hyderabad as a well-built capital. The capital was used as capital of combined AP which does not mean that Telangana did not have a capital. It also does not mean that Hyderabad was developed as capital in the united state.
Kiran: Centre neither listened to various stakeholders nor worked for finding solutions to any of the issues. Centre is pursuing all this without any homework.
Ponnam: It is a blatant lie. The Srikrishna Committee, all-party meetings held by Union home ministers, all party meetings and Assembly meeting before December 9, 2009 are realities. The Centre did its homework well.
Kiran: Why is the Centre not waiting for the report of Antony Committee?
Ponnam: Who said it is not being considered? The views of Antony Committee will definitely form the basis for division as assured by the home ministry several times.
Kiran: Bringing Telangana issue as a table item does not indicate seriousness of the subject.
Ponnam: It is just an assumption. The entire cabinet discussed the item seriously. Saying repeatedly that this has serious implications on the lives of crores people is ridiculous as it reflects that all these years Seemandhra leaders were depending solely on Telangana for everything at latter’s cost. This is exactly the reason why four crore people in Telangana can no longer be left at the mercy of Seemandhra leaders like the chief minister.
Source: The New Indian Express
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