Stating that the decision on Telangana was taken by the Congress high command under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, after much discussion and debate over the issue, former PCC president D Srinivas said the chief minister, PCC president and every one in the party need to respect it and ensure its implementation.
Addressing a gathering after hoisting the national flag at Gandhi Bhavan here on Tuesday on the occasion of the Hyderabad Liberation Day, Srinivas said that though India became Independent on August 15, 1947, the people of Hyderabad enjoyed freedom only after the liberation of Hyderabad under the leadership of Sardar Vallabhai Patel on September 17, 1948.
He said the States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) was not in favour of the merger of Andhra state and Telugu-speaking districts of Hyderabad state but the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru wanted a single state for all Telugu people.
The then Hyderabad chief minister Burgula Ramakrishna Rao and other Hyderabad Congress leaders were not in favour of the merger but they accepted the decision of the party leadership, he said in an indirect remark that chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy was not following the tradition set by the Congress leaders of yore.
“Telangana formation is not an emotional division of Telugu people but only geographical division. No one nurses hatred towards the other. In fact, even before Hyderabad was liberated, people from Andhra region had settled in erstwhile Hyderabad state doing agriculture. Now, many of them have become rich and some have also become people’s representatives,’’ he said.