Piscataway, New Jersey: About 500 Telugu NRIs have met at the Radisson Hotel, 21 Kingsbridge Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854 in support of a Samaikhya Andhra, amidst the heaviest snow storm of this year. Even this strongest storm could not stop the determination and will power of the Telugu NRI community to get together on this day Dec 20th 2009 to discuss about the Samaikhya Andhra.
It was attended by several NRIs, visitors from India, including retired IAS officers, business entrepreneurs, several professionals in the areas of IT, pharmacy, finance, other industries, and active community leaders, who represent from different districts of Andhra Pradesh. Some of the prominent speakers include Kiran, Rajgopal Nandiwada, Kanuri Seshubabu, Ramanayudu, Sirisha, Sashi Manepalli, Satyanarayana Rao, Kodali Ramesh, Padmaja Anne and Karri Sundar.
A melodious prayer and an excellent "Maa Telugu Talliki" dance program was performed by the Kuchipudi Dance Academy, choreographed by Smt. Swathi Gundapaneedi.
Many speakers participated actively and expressed their heartfelt grief and agony, caused by the recent split of our Andhra Pradesh back in our homeland. Speakers expressed their condolences for all the students and people died recently in Telangana, Costal Andhra and Rayalseema regions, with an appeal to all to maintain peace and integrity and refrain from any emotional and violent actions.
Everyone actively participated in taking up an oath, and signed up for a pledge, standing in support for the United Andhra Pradesh. They felt that, this split is now leading to bigger issues such as identity crisis, political turmoil, loss of public property, unrest among students, loss of income and livelihood among common people. While we are just to recover from the present crisis of unemployment with a ray of hope in terms of IT growth and several other sectors, this split has caused a big hue on our progress, like the divide-and-rule policy by the British in the past, due to the vested interests of a very few politicians.
They adopted an anonymous resolution in favor of Samaikya Andhra Pradesh. The participants hail from all regions of Andhra Pradesh Telangana, Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema. Some of the key points of this resolution are:
1. Govt. of India should unconditionally withdraw the announcement to initiate the process of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh by honorable Home Minister P. Chidambaram
2. Govt. of India and Govt. of AP should take immediate steps to restore normalcy, law and order in the state to enable people to go back to their normal life and likelihood
3. Govt. of India should setup committees to suggest methods to bring economic balance between different regions in the state
4. To prevail the will of the people, all members of the parliament and assembly of the state of Andhra Pradesh should confirm their resignations to the respective speakers of the assembly
5. Govt. of India should provide a platform to bring together the people and their elected leaders to discuss the issue and find an amicable solution.
The community felt that the there have been several unsuccessful attempts made in the past, but were failed to split only because, it is not the healthy for the state, and this time, some vested politicians have taken advantage of the present situation, causing more distress to the common people. They indicated that smaller states are not the solution to address the issue of backwardness.
Hyderabad was the main focus of the discussion. It has achieved tremendous growth in IT and other industries in the past 10 years. Hyderabad does belong to all regions of Andhra, Telangana and Rayalaseema, and so it is not fair to split this state and this city. Several prominent institutions and universities such as the upcoming IIT, NIT, BITS, ISB, IIIT, Central University and several Central Govt. research organizations have been setup in and around Hyderabad, and several coastal Andhra people have tremendously contributed to this progress. When people invested in Hyderabad, they never look back thinking that it could be someone else’s property. It was with brotherly affection and a feeling of united family. The Cultural, Social and Economic dynamics of Hyderabad reflect the sentiments and aspirations of the people from all regions of the state and every person from the state feels that he/she is Hyderabadi.
The program was organized by a lot of volunteers, in a very short time. To mention a few, not but not least, following volunteers have spent their precious time and effort - Prasad Kavuru, Srinivas Penematsa, Ramanaidu Kantubuktha, Praveen Penmatsa, Ponnala John, Prasad Manne, Kiran Patibandla, Sailaja Adluru, Satya Nemana, Damu Gedala with MC by Sai Chekuri. Our special thanks to Salu James, for providing the music system and the Radisson Hotel management for the facility.
All those who are interested in contributing opinions and like to participate in further discussion with a positive support for United Andhra can sign up and join at [email protected]
Tags: NRI, New Jersey, Andhra, Telangana, Hyderabad
