Deputy Leader of Opposition (Rajya Sabha) Ravi Shankar Prasad on Sunday criticized the Congress-led UPA government for the way they had handled the creation of Telangana, calling it a political move by the ruling party.
"We especially want to discuss how the Congress has mishandled the creation of Telangana. This demand has been there for a long time and many have sacrificed towards its creation. The Congress party has rushed through the process because of political reasons since the elections are nearing," Prasad said outside BJP leader L.K. Advani's residence where top party officials met earlier today.
He also said that the creation of Chattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand during the BJP rule stand as models for new states.
"The NDA states were created after discussing the matter with all parties, peacefully. This was because our motive was not political but we were instead committed to their creation in principle and wholeheartedly, like we are in the case of Telangana. ...The NDA created three states extremely smoothly unlike the Congress party who have mishandled the creation of Telangana. The Congress have consciously politicized the whole Telangana issue," Prasad said.
On July 30, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) had announced their decision to carve out Telangana from Andhra Pradesh.
On Sunday, top BJP officials including Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley amongst others met at Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani's residence in New Delhi to discuss issues that would be raised in the Monsoon Session of Parliament.
"We look forward to discussing the economic condition of the country, with the falling rupee against the dollar, the deadlock between the CBI and the IB, the border situation with China who are making incursions into India-we are in favor of discussing all these issues," Prasad added.
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The BJP will meet NDA leaders before the commencement of the Monsoon Session of Parliament on August 5.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had appealed to opposition parties for their cooperation saying that he was looking forward to a constructive and productive Monsoon Session of Parliament.
"We look forward to a very constructive, productive session of Parliament. Lot of time was wasted in previous two or three sessions and there is lot of legislative agenda pending before the Congress, before the Parliament. And I sincerely hope that all sections of the house will cooperate in making it a very productive, very constructive session," Dr. Singh said.
The Prime Minister also labeled the Food Security Bill as the "most important" ordinance before the Parliament.