TELNGANA CONGRESS LEADERS DENY MAOIST INFLUENCE

Telangana Congress leaders on Thursday firmly denied the presence of any Maoist elements in the separate state movement and told the Centre that using that as a pretext to delay new state creation was unacceptable. This was conveyed to Union home minister P Chidambaram by a Telangana Congress delegation, including MPs and MLAs, here on Thursday. It included MPs M Jagannatham , Madhu Yaskhi, Ponnam Prabhakar, G Sukhender Reddy , K Rajagopal Reddy, and MLAs K Jana Reddy, D Sreedhar Babu, J Krishna Rao, P Sudershan Reddy, Basavaraj Saraiah and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy.

According to the leaders, acting governor E S L Narasimhan had reportedly conveyed such a viewpoint in his report on the law and order situation in the state submitted to Chidambaram on Dec 4. There is no Maoist presence in the Telangana movement. In fact, the recent bandh call given by the Maoists in the region was an utter flop. The Telangana movement is a peopleled one. Any attempt to discredit it by attaching the Maoist tag is unfortunate and unacceptable, said Jagannatham. The Telangana leaders are also upset over the fact that apart from the governor and the Centre, those opposing Telangana were also raising the Maoist bogey.

CM K Rosaiah referred to the Maoist presence in an informal meeting with party MPs here two days ago. He said Telangana JAC convenor M Kodandaram is a former naxal and that leftist writer Varavaraos presence at the OU students meeting on Dec 4 was proof of that. This is a falsehood and an attempt to show the movement in a bad light, said the MP.

The Telangana JAC that met at the Constitution Club here on Wednesday also assailed the governor for the smear campaign . According to sources, some members at the meeting wanted the committee to meet President Pratibha Patil and seek the recall of Narasimhan, but others restrained them by saying that more proof should be gathered before making such a move. We will discuss the governors remarks at the JAC meeting being held in Hyderabad next week, a senior leader told TOI.

The Telangana leaders said late chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy had effectively finished off Maoists in the state. In fact, it was Chidambaram himself who had given an award to YSR for tackling the Maoists in Andhra Pradesh. If at all there is any presence of the extremists still left in the state, it is in the coastal Andhra districts of Vizianagaram and Srikakulam, Rajya Sabha MP V Hanumantha Rao told the media here on Thursday .

In Hyderabad too, Telangana Congress leaders targeted governor Narasimhan for playing the Maoist card. Maoists have no influence on the Telangana people. They refused to respond to the bandh call given by the extremists. The governor should not have talked of the naxal presence in his report to the Union home minister, senior Telangana Congress leader Palvai Goverdhan Reddy said in Hyderabad .

Peace first: Chidu

In an indication of some clarity on the Telangana issue, Union home minister P Chidambaram told delegations of political parties who called on him in Delhi on Thursday that there could be no forward movement on the separate state issue until the agitations ended and law and order was restored in AP. This was conveyed by him to delegations of Congress from Telangana, Telugu Desam from Andhra, MIM and Telangana PRP when they met him during the day. Peace has to be restored immediately. Everything else is secondary, he told the groups.

(SOURCE : TOI)