Click to play videoNew Delhi: The Telangana drama continues to play out in Andhra Pradesh and New Delhi. Congress MLAs and MPs from Telangana on Tuesday sent letters to the Congress High Command urging the party not to dilute its earlier stand on the issue.
They are insisting that they may be forced to resign if the party moves away from granting a separate state with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) also stepping up its pressure.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also met aggrieved Congress MPs from coastal Andhra and Rayalseema regions and discussed the issue with them.
On the other hand, anti-Telangana MP L Rajagopal of the Congress ended his week-long fast and has been discharged from the NIMS in Hyderabad.
CNN-IBN grilled Rajagopal for his stand on Telangana and his fast for a united Andhra.
CNN-IBN: Your critics would say that your agitation is aimed only at projecting yourself as the hero of the "Samakhiya (united) Andhra Cause"? How would you respond?
L Rajagopal: I have been voicing my concern at various levels that Andhra as a land cannot be divided. There are several instances in the last five years where I had altercations with TRS. On several occasions they attacked my office, on several occasions we had altercations. Even when I was in Nizamabad, the hotbed of Telangana, there also I challenged the Telangana. Telengana is only for the leaders because leaders are very happy if the state is divided in 10 places and 10 constituencies. Uniting is not a movement started by Rajagopal. It sprang from the hearts of the people. There are so many people who want Samakhiya Andhra in the erstwhile Nizam's districts, the so called Telangana districts. There are people also saying that after 400 years of united Telugu land why divide this land?
CNN-IBN: Critics would say all this is just a drama and your real aspiration is to emerge as a candidate for chief minister?
L Rajagopal: I very clearly stated and reiterated that if the state, Telugu land is divided I don't want to be in the political system and if I am not in the political system where is the question of me being chief minister? I am very clear that the state should not be divided and cannot be divided.
CNN-IBN: Doesn't it increase the tension on the issue, especially as no resolution has been passed. Why have these protests?
L Rajagopal: It is not how could anybody obstruct me from coming to Hyderabad. There were two types of freedom fighters. Mahatma Gandhiji adopted one path and Subhash Chandra, Bhagat Singhji adopted another path. Both have been good for the movement. My fasting was good. My trying to come to Hyderabad despite the whole of police trying to obstruct my entry which is most unfortunate was to make a point that no body can stop when someone is on the righteous path when someone has got right. Moreover, the Human Rights Commission said that Rajagopal should be allowed inside Hyderabad and I continued on this path for Day One and I was honest enough to tell the whole nation that don’t be fooled by these leader who do a KCR type of fast.
CNN-IBN:Sir, a demand for a separate Telangana has been on for decades. The sentiments are very strong on that side of the divide. Now we have protests for a Samakhiya Andhra. Can there ever be a consensus on this issue?
L Rajagopal: Never a Telangana state never an Andhra state. It is a wrong notion that Telangana was a demand for long. There was no Andhra state, there was Madras state and an Hyderabad state. It was some 400 years back when there was Telugu land with Warangal as the capital. After foreign rule we got back the land. This Telugu land from two states, from Madras and Hyderabad and came together after the sacrifice of Potti Sriramulu, the then chief minister of Hyderabad Burgula Ramakrishna Rao. They sacrificed in bringing back the land. Unless you understand all of these things the false propaganda that is being made as though there is a separate Telangana state and they lost their existence, there was never a Telangana state never an Andhra state.
CNN-IBN: Sir, you come from a big business group. Are you trying to protect your business interests by going on such agitations?
L Rajagopal: I left chairmanship of all my companies in 2003 but still Lanco group has got business in 15 states and 90 per cent of the business is outside Andhra Pradesh. Within Andhra what is in Hyderabad is small in comparison to what is on the other side of Andhra Pradesh. Moreover if somebody wants to protect the interest no one will be vocal like this and it doesn't matter for Lanco if there are 15 or 16 states. They are not only in many states but in many countries so it is just an argument to try to put me on defence.
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