Be Good Neighbours, President Tells Telangana, AP

President Pranab Mukherjee today advised the two Telugu states to abstain from sparring and instead vie for sustainable development and harmony.

Receiving the first copy of "Uniki" (existence) - an autobiography by Maharashtra Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao - at HICC from Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, the President asked Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to follow the most important of the 10 commandments - avoiding envy and wrongful desire.

Chiding the two states for being at loggerheads for some time now after the bifurcation, Mukherjee asked them to behave in a friendly manner and strive together for continuous progress and to resolve the peoples' issues.

Now that the dream of statehood for Telangana had become a reality, those at the helm of affairs should resolve issues, he said.

Hyderabad was not just the capital of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, it was also a city of India, a key IT centre and an educational hub with modern civilization and culture, he reminded the audience.

Speaking on the subject of the occasion, Mukherjee said that he had had a long association with Vidyasagar Rao, who was a multi-faceted personality who had been an MP, a Leader of the Opposition and a union minister, and was now Governor of Maharashtra.

Vidyasagar Rao, while extending thanks to the President for his presence, said Uniki focused on how one needed to live purposefully as propounded by Swami Vivekananda. Uniki was a compilation of articles, including those he penned from jail during the Emergency, on the Nizam's rule and the Razakars, on the martyrs, and on social, political and peoples' issues. The book had 89 articles spread over 479 pages, and also covered his life, including his childhood, his days as a student leader in Osmania University, his developing a strong left-orientation, his joining the BJP and his now turning the Governor of Maharashtra. (NSS)