The ruling Congress Party’s cup of woes continue to overflow. Announcement for the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) was supposed to facilitate the smooth functioning of the Parliament but the Lower House or Lok Sabha continues to see disruption, and this time on the issue of a separate Telengana state.
Leading the protest were eleven Congress parliamentarians from the Telengana region of Andhra Pradesh.Giving them support were the Telangana Rashtra Samiti Leader, K Chandrasekhar Rao and M Vijayashanti ,who refused to stop shouting despite the Speaker’s request to raise the issue during zero hour.
Some of the Congress MPs,like,M Jagannath, Madhu Goud Yaskhi, Poonam Prabhakar and Sarvey Satyanarayana, raised slogans ‘Jai Telangana’.
According to some reports Congress leaders from Telengana met the Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, and threatened to quit if the demands for separate state is not met.
Realizing the gravity of the situation Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh also held talks with the agitating Congress leaders.
Intervening in the Parliament the Opposition leader, Shushma Swaraj, extended her party’s support for the creation of the separate Telengana if the Prime Minister takes the initiative.
Meanwhile normal life in the Telengana region remains paralyzed for the second day. Telengana supporters had called for 48 hours of strike in the entire region to press for the demand of a new state.
The government employees are participating in the strike by going in for a non cooperation till the demand for a separate state is not met.