"Pseudo-Secularist Naidu Stalling Telangana"

Congress MLC and PCC vice-president Mohammad Ali Shabbir on Sunday accused Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu of trying to stall the process of Telangana formation by joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Speaking to media persons at the Assembly media point, Shabbir Ali described Naidu as a "pseudo-secularist" who is struggling hard to forge an alliance with the BJP.

He said that Naidu has been making desperate attempts to return to the NDA fold, and that this was the reason why he shared the dais with BJP's prime ministerial candidate, the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, on two occasions in the recent past.

Shabbir Ali said that the TDP chief appears to have realised that he would be rejected by the people in the next elections due to his dual stand on the Telangana issue. "While he wrote letters to the Centre supporting Telangana, he created obstacles in the T-formation process, one way or the other," he said.

He demanded that Naidu take one stand on the statehood issue. He said that Naidu could emulate YSR Congress president Jaganmohan Reddy, who reversed his stand on Telangana and is now supporting a united Andhra Pradesh. He said that such a move would at least save Telangana people from being cheated by the TDP.

The Congress leader said that Naidu's proximity with the BJP was clearly aimed at stopping the Telangana formation process. He said that it was due to its alliance with the TDP that the BJP-led NDA did not grant statehood for Telangana while in power. "Now, Naidu wants the BJP to stall the Telangana Bill in the Parliament to delay the process," he said.

However, he said that the Congress party is firm on its commitment towards Telangana, and that the new state would be a reality in the next few weeks.

Shabbir Ali wondered as to how Naidu, who expressed regret for not breaking his ties with the NDA after 2002 communal riots of Gujarat, could decide to sail along with the same leader (Narendra Modi) who is accused of being responsible for the genocide of the Muslim community. He said that Naidu's sharing of a dais with Modi for the second time has exposed his pseudo-secularism, and that people would teach him a fitting lesson in the next elections. (INN)