HYDERABAD: It was business as usual for politicians who sought to blame each other for the protest that engulfed Secunderabad Railway Station and left one youth dead and several others injured on Friday. Union Minister G Kishan Reddy squarely held the State government responsible for the violence even as he raised suspicion of a “conspiracy angle” while the TRS blamed the Centre while outright rejecting the notion of any pink party activist being behind the violent agitations.
While the protest, that went on for a good part of seven hours, was going on, Kishan held a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi. Speaking to reporters later, he accused some TRS Ministers of adding fuel to the fire. Kishan alleged that the agitators targeted the railway station as part of a “preplanned conspiracy”. Alleging that there was ‘political involvement’ in the incident, he demanded that the State government order a probe into the incident and place the facts before the people. “The agitation was preplanned. The State government should take responsibility for the incident. It had also failed to prevent agitations in front of the Raj Bhavan on Thursday,” Kishan alleged.
He went on to allege that the State government arrested BJP State president Bandi Sanjay and party MP Soyam Bapu Rao when they were on their way to IIIT-Basara, but failed to control the agitation at Secunderabad station. Accusing the State police of remaining mute spectators while the agitators were setting fire on trains, Kishan claimed that the protest was planned through WhatsApp groups. Pointing out that the Agnipath scheme was voluntary, Kishan wondered how any issues would be resolved if railway stations were set on fire.
Meanwhile, TRS working president KT Rama Rao accused the Union government of ‘negatively affecting’ the spirit of the armed forces by taking such decisions at a time when India’s neighbours were posing a threat to the security of the country.Earlier, KT Rama Rao tweeted: “The violent protests against #AgniveerScheme is an eye-opener & acute indicator of the magnitude of unemployment crisis in the country. From One Rank - One Pension to proposed No Rank - No Pension!.
Farmers don’t understand #FarmLaws. Traders don’t understand #GST. Common man doesn’t understand #Demonetisation. Muslims don’t understand #CAA. Homemakers don’t understand #LPG prices. Now youth don’t understand #Agniveer Only #VishwaGuru can fathom”. State Endowments and Law Minister A Indrakaran Reddy said in a statement that the TRS had nothing to do with the Secunderabad incident. “It is the culture of BJP to provoke people,” he said, condemning BJP leaders for accusing the TRS of being behind the violent protest. “There is no room for violence in TRS rule,” Indrakaran Reddy said.