JP questions utility of Antony panel

Lok Satta Party national president Dr Jayaprakash Narayan, on Friday, said that the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh should not be viewed as an issue pertaining to the Congress party. He said the Congress party would stand as an accused in the history of the country by playing cynical politics and promoting hatred and animosities among people.

Talking to mediapersons, he took strong exception to the appointment of a party committee headed by Defence Minister, A K Antony to hear grievances of Seemandhra people. He wondered as to how a Congress party committee could be approached by other political parties for making a formal representation on the issue.

It was strange that neither the Prime Minister nor the Union Home Minister uttered a single word even as parts of Andhra Pradesh were burning. Having concluded that its days in Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema were numbered, the Congress party decided to abruptly announce the division of the State without preparing ground for amicable separation solely with an eye on short-term electoral gains. When it is rewriting the history of the State, the ruling party ought to have taken every stakeholder, he said.