In Seemandhra, cries for independent Telugu nation

HYDERABAD: Miffed Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leaders from Seemandhra have a new demand: If we can’t have a united Andhra, we want our separate country and our separate parliament.

At least half a dozen senior TDP leaders, including MPs, have been echoing this bizarre demand in the last few days. Leading the pack is TDP MP and industrialist Modugula Venugopal Reddy, who shot to infamy after threatening suicide with a broken microphone in the Lok Sabha moments after the Telangana Bill was to be tabled on Thursday . “Give us our own parliament . We will be a separate country like Bangladesh and Pakistan,” he said.

“When Parliament does not bother about sentiments of Seemandhra people and respect the region’s MPs, what’s wrong in demanding a separate country?” he told TOI.

Forced to feel like aliens in India: Seemandhra MP

Five crore denizens of Seemandhra are subjected to ‘genocide’ by Sonia Gandhi who is not bothered about their concerns .” Incidentally, many Seemandhraites active on social media have been posting comments echoing these sentiments. A Facebook group on “Seemandhra , a separate country” has been created, though it has few takers. One of the comments is: “When there is no respect for Andhras, there is thinking whether we should be part of this country or not.” Former minister and TDP legislator Gali Muddukrishnama Naidu’s demand for a separate country is also part of the separatist chorus.

The demand for an independent Seemandhra has its genesis in posters put up in Nuzvidu of Krishna district in October last year in the name of town TDP president Nutakki Venugopala Rao. “Not the division of the state, we want separate nation for Seemandhra . Andhra people need protection from fake Gandhis. Our goal is separate country for Seemandhra,” the poster read.

Senior legislator Payyavulu Keshav, who has been the face of Samaikyandhra movement in the TDP, said, “Are we living in India . Are we not part of India? We are forced to feel like aliens in our own country.”

Former minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy was the first senior TDP leader to voice this desire. He repeated the statement several times, the latest being on Friday.

“If a separate state can be created on the basis of self rule, why should south India not be a separate country on the same plank,” he said adding “that day is not far away” .