Pawan to take up Special fight

​Tirupati: Film star and Jana Sena founder president Pawan Kalyan on Saturday vowed to fight till Andhra Pradesh is accorded special category status. Addressing a largely attended meeting of his fans and Jana Sena activists here on Saturday, the film star-turned-politician announced his 3-phase struggle to achieve special category status for the state.

In the first phase, he will tour the districts addressing meeting in district headquarters, which will begin with Kakinada on September 9. The Jana Sena chief said he chose Kakinada to begin the first phase of the campaign for special status as it was there the BJP adopted a resolution ‘One vote Two states’ in favour of bifurcation in 1997. He said it was interesting to note that the BJP chose to pass the resolution in Andhra Pradesh and not in Telangana.

Having done so, it never bothered to think about what the residuary state should get in case of bifurcation. It made some noise in Parliament and was now going back on its own words. In the second phase, the party will take up a programme to exert pressure on the MPs and MLAs of all parties more so those belonging to the ruling combine as well as the central ministers, Pawan said. “If the Centre remains silent even after that he would hit the streets in the third phase,” he said amidst loud applause.

Stating that he was pained and angered with the lame excuses and pretexts of the central leadership on the special category status, Pawan said that the Centre was going on reeling out statistics on financial aid provided so far under various schemes and heads and was refusing to understand the agony and anguish of the people.

“There is no question of going back on the issue of special status and we will fight till finish,” he thundered. Hitting at the Centre, Pawan said that he will take the fight to Delhi. “Delhi is not able to hear us because we are down south. So we will come to your vicinity,’’ he said. “I kept quiet for two-and-a-half years only to give reasonable time to the Centre and the state to fulfill the promises.

But my silence was misconstrued and the media accused me of doing ‘bhajan’ to Modi while CPI leader ridiculed me as Rubber Singh and not Gabbar Singh. “You accuse me of anything but not as a one who betrayed the people’s interest,’’ he said reiterating his firm resolve to fight for special status.

“People of Seemandhra remained restrained all these years as they are peace loving, but they are now running out of patience. You will see what the Seemandhra people can if their self-respect was hurt and if they were humiliated,’’ he said.

“Special status is not a charity. It is the right of the people of Andhra Pradesh,” he said. He also sought the MPs not to beg for it but learn to demand. He also had a piece of advice for opposition parties when he said YSRCP and Congress and other parties should launch a joint fight not in isolation. He called upon the MPs to learn Hindi.

It appears the Centre was ignoring them as they are not able to assert in Hindi and the Centre does not understand Telugu. Pawan asked Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu to rise above partyline and fight for special status just as he did in Parliament when the AP State Reorganisation bill was introduced. Pawan refrained from making any serious comments against the Prime Minister or Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

However, he accused the saffron party of diverting public attention on its failure on special status, by raking up the cow protection as a national issue. “I do have 15 cows. If they are keen on cow protection let every activists of VHP, BJP and Bajrang Dal adopt one cow each and also include cow protection as Corporate Social Responsibility,’’ he said.

Turning his gun on CM Naidu, he said he wondered why AP Chief Minister was adopting soft attitude on special status. He called upon the MPs to stall Parliament.