Congress Slams Ministers For "Belittling" Kodandaram

The Telangana Congress, which is in turmoil due to internecine strife in its leadership, is latching on to an unexpected opportunity to vilify the TRS and its leader and State CM K Chandrashekar Rao, after TPJAC Chairman Kodandaram made some caustic comments against KCR and TRS ministers launched a stinging counter-attack against him.

Congress leaders T Jeevan Reddy, Mallu Ravi and former MP from Karimnagar Ponnam Prabhakar launched a scathing attack on KCR and his cabinet colleagues for ganging up against Kodandaram. Reddy stated that the ruling Party was afraid that Kodandaram's candid comments would gain traction. Kodandaram spoke the truth when he said that the TRS government had failed to stop suicides by farmers and had achieved nothing after the tortuous struggle for a separate State. And some of the bitter retaliation by KCR's ministers was an insult to the Telangana statehood protagonists, they claimed.

Condemning the comments of the ministers, Reddy alleged that KCR was indeed just spending time at his own farmhouse and ignoring the farmers' problems. The TRS government had miserably failed to do anything for the cause of the agriculture sector, he said, and found fault with the ministers for criticizing Kodandaram for his remarks. The Congress leaders expressed serious displeasure at the fierce combined onslaught against Kodandaram by TRS leaders, and sought to know whether there existed any civil rights in the State.

Mallu Ravi alleged that the very foundations of the TRS had received a huge jolt due to the comments of Kodandaram. Expressing surprise at the ministers for viciously targeting Kodandaram, which was tantamount to an attack on the people of Telangana themselves, he demanded that KCR react on the row. Stating that there was nothing wrong in the words of Kodandaram, who spoke on behalf of the people, he said that the ex-Professor was a genuine well-wisher of the State and had united all its political parties and sections in the statehood struggle.

In Khammam, Ponnam Prabhakar, too, took exception to the TRS attacking Kodandaram just for the latter seeking to know what the government had done in its two-year rule. He also objected to the comments that the TPJAC did not even exist anymore. It was not right for the government to make such a sordid attack on Kodandaram for comments which were not wrong, he said. The people would not welcome this attitude, he said, and asked them to extend support to the ex-professor fighting for their cause.