Hyderabad: Pro-Telangana activists briefly interrupted the Chalo Hyderabad dharna conducted by the Andhra Pradesh Non-Gazetted Officers (APNGOs) Association at Indira Park on Wednesday by pulling down MP Lagadapati Rajagopal from the stage while he was addressing the audience.
Three activists of Telangana Yuva Shakti, sitting in the front row, suddenly barged on the stage and caught the Vijayawada MP’s clothes and pulled him down.
While scuffle broke out between Samaikyandhra activists and pro-Telangana protesters, a police team rushed to the spot and took the three into custody.
As the meeting restarted after the brief interruption, it was disrupted yet again when another Telangana activist, also sitting in the front row, raised a “Jai Telangana”?slogan.
Speaking to the audience, Rajagopal said, “Hyderabad is not someone’s father’s or mother’s property”.
Quoting a “violent dialogue”?from the Mahesh Babu starrer Pokiri, the MP said, “Evadu kodithe dimma thirigi mind block avuthundo, vade samaikya vadi (by whose blow your conscience spins and your mind gets blocked, they are samaikya vadi)”.
Pro-Telangana activists alleged that Rajagopal’s remarks were highly inflammatory.
The three Telangana activists, Bandi Kiran Prakash, Nageswara Rao and Raju, students of a college in Siddipet, had entered the premises dodging the high security arrangements set up by the city police.
The trio sat on the front row without arousing anyone’s suspicion and surprised the entire gathering with their quick action.Though the MP lost balance and fell down, he was not hurt in the incident.
Later, when the fourth person, a police constable from Karimnagar Srinivas, shouted “Jai Telangana”, police took him into preventive custody.
Addressing the gathering, APNGOs Association president Ashok Babu claimed that it was because of their efforts that the bifurcation was being delayed and the Bill must be defeated in the Assembly to stop carving out a new state.
“The common capital mentioned in the draft Telangana Bill would make the state a kingdom without the king. If it becomes a common capital, it will have the same fate as Delhi (referring to the AAP protest in Delhi),”?he said.
The meeting was conducted to oppose the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill 2013 currently being debated by the legislature.
Though APNGOs leaders had earlier boasted that there would be lakhs of people attending the sit-in dharna, the number of people attending was less than 10,000.
Besides ministers from Seemandhra Ganta Sreenivasa Rao, T.G. Venkatesh and Erasu Pratap Reddy and MPs, including Rajagopal, thousands of government employees from Seemandhra attended the dharna.
The city police, which had deployed as many as 20 APSP units, a CRPF team, an RPF team, 50 sub inspectors, 15 inspectors, 10 DSPs and 100 women police personnel at the venue, was taken completely unawares by the pro-Telangana students.
The APNGOs Association had earlier called for a march to the Assembly but after the police had refused permission. It had then decided to stage a sit-in at Indira Park.
Senior police officials from Central Zone, meanwhile, said that there were no major violations of law in the city.
