Hyderabad: BJP Karnataka MP Tejasvi Surya came under intense fire from leaders cutting across the political spectrum in Telangana for comparing the state’s formation with that of Pakistan separating from India. The comments left the BJP in Telangana squirming as it tried to defend its Bangalore-South MP over what everyone else described as an outright attack on people of Telangana and the statehood movement.
The Congress, the BRS, and even Telangana Jagruthi, were quick to slam Surya, who is also president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, leaving the BJP with the prospect of fighting off the other parties on a new front, on the emotive statehood issue.
Lashing out at Surya, minister Ponnam Prabhakar called the BJP MP “a foolish person” who displayed his “sheer ignorance on Telangana.” Demanding Surya’s “immediate sacking” as MP, Prabhakar questioned the silence of BJP MPs from Telangana while Surya was speaking in Parliament.
“Legal action must be taken to teach him a lesson, to ensure that no one else speaks disparagingly about of Telangana,” Prabhakar said.
Minister Jupally Krishna Rao called Surya’s comments the “pinnacle of ignorance.” Krishna Rao condemning Surya’s rhetoric, said it was an affront to the collective self-respect of the people. “Though his comments Surya displayed the BJP’s deep-seated bias against Telangana,” he said.
He also accused the BJP of maintaining a contradictory stance — seeking votes in the state while harbouring “ill-will” toward Telangana’s very existence.
The BRS, led by working president K.T. Rama Rao and senior leader Harish Rao, also demanded that BJP MPs from Telangana explain their silence “even as Surya was spewing venom against Telangana.” They demanded an unqualified apology from Surya and the BJP, declaring that the people will never forgive BJP from now on.
It has “become a habit for the BJP – right from Prime Minister Modi to its various other leaders — to repeatedly express its opposition to Telangana statehood. The BJP will have to pay a price for its attitude,” Rama Rao said.
Harish Rao said Surya’s comments had exposed BJP’s intolerance of Telangana’s rise as a model state. “If the BJP fails to explicitly express its stand on statehood and condemn Surya, then people will have no option but to take the venomous comments as BJP’s official stand on Telangana and its formation,” Harish Rao said.
Telangana Jagruti president K. Kavitha condemned Surya for “trivialising” the “six-decade-long aspirations” for statehood. “BJP MPs from the state have forfeited their moral right to remain in their seats because of their silence. They should step down from their positions,” she said.
The task of defending Surya fell on BJP state president N. Ramchander Rao who “appealed to the people not to misunderstand” Surya’s comments, which he said, were being “distorted” by other parties. Ramchander Rao said “we will not tolerate anyone who insults the self-respect of Telangana. It is the responsibility of everyone to respect the people’s emotions on statehood.”
He said Surya did not compare Telangana to Pakistan, but only referred to the loss of lives during the Partition. “Though BJP supported the Telangana statehood, it was the Congress which delayed it for several decades which led to loss of several youth lives. It is not correct to distort Surya’s comments, and we are warning those doing so to immediately stop it,” Ramchander Rao said.
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