The Hindu : Front Page : Advani takes an indirect dig at TDP

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Friday, Oct 24, 2008
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Advani takes an indirect dig at TDP

Blames the party for its late decision in favouring separate Telangana

— Photo: Mohd. Yousuf

ON FIRM GROUND: Sri Tridandi Chinna Jeeyar Swamy blessing Leader of the Opposition (Lok Sabha) L.K. Advani in Hyderabad on Thursday as Eenadu Group Chairman Ch. Ramoji Rao looks on.

HYDERABAD: Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, L. K. Advani, indirectly blamed the Telugu Desam for not creating Telangana State during the NDA regime when he said that a separate State would have been a reality by now if those who were pledging support at this juncture had been forthcoming then.

Speaking at the release of the Telugu translation of his autobiographical work ‘My Country My Life’ by Eenadu Group Chairman Ch. Ramoji Rao here on Thursday, he said he would have liked it to be recorded in the book that the NDA government carved out not only Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, but also Telangana.

Stating that the Telugu version was the third avatar of the book after its launch in English and Hindi, he recalled that a major political episode in his political life was the struggle against Emergency rule. Lauding the people of the country for displaying political maturity in throwing out the Congress, he said that even today, sadly, the Congress has not shunned the mindset of harassing free press which was manifesting itself in the form of targeting Mr. Ramoji Rao. The BJP leader praised him for not getting cowed down by such treatment and said “he is a man who will neither bend nor crawl”.

Mr. Advani said he considered three issues relating to Andhra Pradesh as milestones in his political career. The first was the Bharatiya Jana Sangh meeting in Vijayawada in 1965 where Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya presented his philosophical treatise ‘integral humanism’ for the first time. The second instance was the special meeting of Jana Sangh held in Hyderabad in 1974 to discuss Jayaprakash Narayan’s proposal for all non-Congress to come together on a single platform to fight corruption. The last was in 1989 when NTR was instrumental in making the BJP agree to support the National Front government headed by V. P. Singh.

Zero tolerance

Referring to the spread of terrorism across the country, he said people could no longer afford to have a weak government at the Centre. The country certainly needed to respond to this threat in a different way.

It should show a similar attitude to the problem like how the USA tackled terrorism after the 9/11 attack -- displaying zero tolerance. He attributed the price rise to corruption and economic mismanagement by the UPA government.

BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu, Mr. Ramoji Rao, former UP Governor B. Satyanarayana Reddy, former Cabinet Secretary T. R. Prasad and Sri Tridandi Chinna Jeeyar Swamy, spoke while Ms. Pratibha, daughter of Mr. Advani, proposed a vote of thanks.

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