The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Stop politicking, YSR tells TDP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 16, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Stop politicking, YSR tells TDP

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, MARCH 15. The Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, has asked the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to set its priorities right instead of indulging in petty political games over everything.

He was referring to the controversy raked up by the TDP over the naming of the international airport at Shamshabad after Rajiv Gandhi in Parliament on Tuesday.

He said the decision to name the airport after Rajiv Gandhi had been taken at a meeting in the first week of December 2004, in New Delhi when the consortium promoting the airport along with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) met. He himself and the Union Minister for Civil Aviation were present at the meeting.

The decision could not be reversed just because the TDP was demanding it to be named after P.V. Narasimha Rao or Potti Sriramulu - here again the TDP did not have clarity, he said.

The TDP, he alleged, was stooping to lowly games and it should note that the Congress party did not resort to such politics in the past when the NDA changed the name of the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in 1999.

The TDP suggested breaking of the airport terminal-wise and called the international terminal, Rajiv Gandhi Terminal, and the other, NTR Domestic Terminal.

There was only one terminal now at Shamshabad and the agreement to this effect was signed by the TDP regime, according to the detailed project report, he said.

Moreover, Rajiv Gandhi made a supreme sacrifice by giving up his life for the security of the country and it was only proper on the part of the Congress Government to perpetuate his memory. In addition, Rajiv Gandhi's association with Hyderabad aviation were well known as he got trained as a pilot.

He said that unlike the TDP or the BJP, the Congress party was blessed with stalwarts who made such supreme sacrifices.

`Right choice'

On the question of Ms. Sonia Gandhi's locus standi in laying the foundation stone for the airport, he wondered who else could be a better choice. Ms. Gandhi had sacrificed the Prime Minister's post by treating the party and the country above positions of power and was entitled to lay the foundation stone.

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