VIJAYAWADA:APCC president N Raghuveera Reddy on Tuesday described Telugu Desam MPs as ‘slaves and beggars’ who were dancing attendance on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and praising him and his regime sky-high in Parliament despite the fact that the people here were seething with anger at him and his government as they had not honoured the promises made by them to the state at the time of bifurcation of AP.
Speaking to newsmen at the Andhra Ratna Bhavan here on Tuesday, the APCC president said: “The TDP MPs almost prostrated before Modi in Parliament when the issue of promises made during the AP State Reorganisation Act was being discussed. They appeared more like slaves and beggars. Both the TDP and BJP MPs have failed to make the Prime Minister respond to the questions raised by our president Sonia Gandhi.”
He accused Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu of double-speak. “In Hyderabad, he said his wings had been clipped but in Delhi his MPs fawned over Modi all the time. Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, using his oratorical skills, only tried to project himself a leader committed to keeping promises and that he was being misunderstood,” he said and wondered how Venkaiah Naidu could say special status had no legal sanctity, that too on the floor of the House. “In fact, it was he who had bragged that the BJP would accord Specialty Status to AP for 10 years though the then prime minister Manmohan Singh had promised such status only for five years. “Now the same leader says Special Status is not possible since it has no legal sanctity,” Raghuveera Reddy said.
He found fault with Modi for not categorically stating if and when the Centre would fulfill the promises it had made to AP in the AP Reorganisation Act . “Modi sat through the bebate on the issue in the Lok Sabha despite the fact that he had made lofty promises during the election campaigns in Tirupati and Visakhapatnam”, he said.