HYDERABAD: With the recent verbal duel between ministers Ponnam Prabhakar and Adluri Laxman Kumar threatening to snowball into a full-blown political crisis, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president B Mahesh Kumar Goud managed to broker peace between the two warring leaders.
In a carefully choreographed video released on Wednesday, both leaders appeared alongside Mahesh Goud. Prabhakar, while maintaining that he had not made any casteist remark against Laxman Kumar, nonetheless offered an apology, saying his comments had been “distorted” by some persons.
Laxman, an SC minister belonging to the Madiga community, sat beside him with a stony expression as Prabhakar reluctantly clarified that he had never uttered the objectionable word which had hurt his Cabinet colleague.
Mahesh Goud played the role of a troubleshooter, successfully persuading both ministers to smoke the peace pipe.
Laxman, who had earlier taken strong exception to Ponnam’s comments and demanded an apology, appeared conciliatory after the meeting.
The breakfast diplomacy, held at the TPCC chief’s residence, brought the curtains down on the brief but noisy episode of hostilities. Calling it a “family matter”, Mahesh Goud praised both leaders for preferring conciliation to confrontation.
“Both ministers are grassroots leaders who have worked their way up through hard toil and public service. By resolving their differences, they’ve set an example of unity and maturity within the government,” he said, while urging them to act with restraint in public.
He reaffirmed that under Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s leadership, the Congress government remains committed to social justice and inclusive governance.
The meeting was attended by ministers Vakiti Srihari, MLAs Kavvampally Satyanarayana, Raj Thakur, AICC secretary Sampath Kumar and corporation chairpersons Eravathri Anil, Shiva Sena Reddy and senior party leader Dr Vinay Kumar.
Following the meeting, Prabhakar issued a clarification, saying, “Adluri Laxman Kumar is like a brother to me. I never had anything personal against him. Some people misinterpreted my words. If my brother Laxman was hurt, I deeply regret it.”
Both ministers later reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening the “Congress ideology and carrying forward Rahul Gandhi’s vision of inclusive governance”.
