Taking on KCR

AP CM Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan are unnecessarily raising the bogey of KCR/TRS, that too at a feverish pitch, in every meeting of theirs, even as the TRS is no stakeholder in the AP polls and it can never be one as long as the term 'Telangana' is a part of its name.

If KCR/TRS criticises the TDP it has some meaning, because the TDP claims to be an important player in Telangana and had recently even contested the Telangana assembly elections by targeting the TRS.

Differences in politics and in approach to the projects in the two Telugu states that have a bearing on each other are understandable.

But what is not excusable is the Babu-Pawan rant that the Andhras in Telangana are being harassed by TRS, which is an utter lie. The Andhra settlers in Telangana, including me, are leading happy lives, with no provocation from the TRS cadres.

The inflammatory Babu-Pawan tirade against Telangana, though for fleeting opportunistic electoral benefit, is a dangerous trend which would only drive an avoidable bitter wedge between the people of Telangana and AP.

It's only now Chandrababu has suddenly remembered Bhadrachalam, having utterly given it up at the time of bifurcation, even though KCR himself said he was prepared to lose it to the new AP.

The entire Bhadrachalam division should have gone back to the truncated AP, for it had been merged into the Khammam district only in 1960, for administrative reasons, four years after the undivided AP was formed.

Even a common man like me raised this issue andTaking on KCR my article "Reconciliation and reconstruction" advocating, among others, the retransfer of Bhadrachalam to the new AP was published in The Hans India (27 Feb 2014).

Finally, KCR being the CM of a cosmopolitan state like Telangana, has an eclectic sense of balance, whereas Chandrababu Naidu is steeped in a vortex of ad-hoc, sectarian, volatile, mendacious and U-turn politics sans any semblance of statesmanship.

U Atreya Sarma, Secunderabad