Even eight years after carving Telangana state out of the combined Andhra Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party continues to blame the Congress party for the unscientific bifurcation of the state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday castigated the Congress party for doing gross injustice to Andhra Pradesh by hastily dividing the state without following proper procedure.
He made these comments while speaking in Rajya Sabha on the motion of thanks to the Presidential address.
He recalled the developments on the day of passage of the bifurcation bill in Lok Sabha and how the Congress-led UPA government had hurriedly got the bill passed.
“The doors were closed and the mikes were disconnected; and a member even used pepper spray to counter the passage of the bill,” he said.
He wondered whether any bills would be passed in such a way in any democratic country.
“The Congress party’s arrogant behaviour had caused injustice to both the Telugu states,” he said.
Modi reminded that during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime, too, three states were formed but without any disturbance.
“Every care was taken to avoid injustice to the existing and newly-formed states,” he said.
The Prime Minister said had the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh been done properly, there would not have been any disputes between the two states which are being witnessed now.
“Because of its hasty attitude, the Congress lost power in both the Telugu states,” he said.
He, however, made it clear that the BJP was not against the bifurcation of combined Andhra Pradesh, but was opposing only the manner in which the bifurcation was done just to gain political mileage in the Centre.