VIJAYAWADA: Telugu NRIs in New Jersey, USA, heckled national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and MP GVL Narasimha Rao for 'cheating' Andhra Pradesh. They also raised slogans demanding justice to the State and walked out of a meeting Narasimha Rao addressed.
The incident came to light when the official social media pages of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) shared a four-minute video which showed an argument between Telugu NRIs and GVL Narasimha Rao at a programme organised by 'Overseas Friends of the BJP' at Edison in New Jersey.
Addressing a meeting, Narasimha Rao was explaining the financial assistance given by the Centre for the development of Andhra Pradesh during which he alleged that the TDP government was politicising the issue. "It is the State government which is not taking the assistance provided by the Centre. Can the TDP government give it in writing why it isn't accepting the assistance?" he asked. To this, some participants raised severe objections and said the Centre was ignoring AP.
They said that even though they supported thought Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, the Centre meted out a raw deal to AP. A heated argument ensued with Narasimha Rao trying to explain to them 'the real picture'. Upon the intervention of the organisers, the Telugu NRIs staged a walkout, raising 'Jai Telugu' slogans.
Condemning the incident, Narasimha Rao said that the TDP NRIs tried to disrupt the programme after being directed by the party headquarters. "These are cheap propaganda tactics of the TDP. We knew that messages were circulated earlier to TDP supporters to attend my meeting and disrupt it by raising questions. We could have prevented their entry, but we allowed them to participate. I was willing to answer all their questions, but they were there only with an intention to disrupt the meeting," he said in a video message released by the BJP State unit.