JP To Start Mission On "Telugu Tejam"

The Lok Satta Party is embarking on a mission to preserve and promote the pride and glory of Telugus, which, according to it, is "now endangered by the Delhi decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh".

The mission, titled Telugu Tejam, will see Lok Satta Party national president Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan mobilizing people's support for a "comprehensive and amicable solution to problems thrown up by the Center's decision to carve out a separate Telangana state without taking all stakeholders into confidence".

To begin with, Dr. JP will be visiting important towns in Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra from September 14 to 27, and interacting with stakeholders at round-table conferences and public meetings.

He will call upon people, youth and students in particular, "not to be swayed by passion and become pawns in political parties' cynical machinations to garner their votes by fueling hatred and enmity".

"Whether the state remains intact or is divided, the glory of Telugus and their language should not be sullied with people in different regions fighting against each other. All can emerge as winners if they are restrained, ready to reconsider their stand and adopt a 'give and take' attitude. What we need now is a quest for harmony, not a mindless conflict," he says.

The Lok Satta Party said, "Instead of finding permanent solutions to problems bedeviling different regions of the State, all the mainstream political parties in the state have exploited a delicate issue for partisan vote bank politics. Both Dr. Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and Mr. N Chandrababu Naidu used the issue to further their prospects in the 2004 and 2009 general elections, respectively. The YSR Congress Party is fishing in troubled waters now."

"Treating Andhra Pradesh as their personal estate, the Congress party and the Union government have opted to divide the state without associating all stakeholders in the decision-making. As people in Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra took to the streets to protest their dictatorial decision, the Congress chose to appoint a party committee, instead of one by the government, to hear their grievances. The Prime Minister has maintained studied silence, even as the chasm between people of different regions is widening," said a party statement. (INN)