TRS chief repeats controversial remarks about PM

Chandrasekhara Rao on Sunday repeated his controversial remarks about PM Manmohan Singh despite a court directing police to book case against him.

Hyderabad: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao Sunday repeated his controversial remarks about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh despite a court directing the police to book a case against him.

Addressing a public meeting here to welcome two Congress MPs and senior leader K. Keshava Rao into the TRS, he said he would not withdraw his remarks, saying he was not afraid of a case or going to jail. KCR, as Rao is popularly known, reiterated that even a peon working in parliament could understand the agony of Telangana but the prime minister could not understand it. He was criticising Singh for not carving a separate Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh despite giving a word in the house in 2009. The additional first class magistrate court in Khammam had Thursday directed the police to register a case against KCR, a member of parliament, and submit a report on the investigation. The court orders came on a petition by an advocate, who alleged that KCR undermined the constitution and defamed the prime minister. The advocate approached the court after police failed to register his complaint. The petitioner alleged that the TRS chief in his recent public meetings and press conferences spoke in a manner that would lower the prestige of the prime minister. On Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad`s statement that a decision on Telangana would be taken in a month, KCR said people of Telangana were not ready to be cheated again by the Congress party. "Not long ago the same Congress leader had remarked that a month does not mean 30 days. Who will believe him or Congress party now," asked the TRS chief. KCR called upon people to bury `Andhra` parties like Congress, Telugu Desam Party and YSR Congress party in the coming elections. "Do we need Andhra parties in Telangana," he asked people and claimed that more leaders from these parties would join the TRS in coming days. He criticised `Andhra` media for describing as family package the joining of Congress MPs and Keshava Rao into the TRS. He warned `Andhra` media against belittling the movement. "This is 57-year-old sacred struggle. It will not stop till Telangana state is achieved," he said. The TRS chief appealed to people to participate in lakhs in a June 14 programme to lay siege to the state assembly. Keshava Rao, a former member of Congress Working Committee, said now there was no need to wait for Telangana as it was in people`s hands. He declared that he was ready for any sacrifice for the cause of a separate state. IANS