Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, who had hitherto been going rather soft in opposing the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, turned aggressive on Friday and brazenly castigated the Centre for being unconstitutional in going ahead with the Telangana formation.
In his strongly-worded letter to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and President Pranab Mukherjee, the Chief Minister indirectly equated the bifurcation of State to partition of India.
“Being a personal victim of partition, someone who appreciates the economic implications of the political decisions and someone with impeccable personal integrity, the Prime Minister must understand our feeling of desperation and discrimination in the manner in which, the whole exercise is being carried out,” he said.
Kiran accused the Centre of adopting a wrong process in the division of state without doing any homework and creating anxiety and apprehensions in the minds of majority of the population.
The people were upset with the way decisions were being taken and the process being pushed through ignoring all conventions and procedures apart from official statements made by Central ministers on behalf of the government.
“Strong belief is gaining ground that Government of India is ignoring majority people’s opinion,” he added.
He questioned the way the Centre had fuel to the fire by bringing the Cabinet note for creation of a new State as table Item.
“To our shock, the subsequent orders issued by the Cabinet Secretariat excludes the crucial ministries like Water Resources, Urban Development, Power, HRD and Planning Commission that were listed in the Cabinet Note circulated. All these short-cuts are raising doubts in the minds of people about the fairness of the process and justness of actions,” Kiran criticised.
