Making her maiden speech in the 16th lok Sabha, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday accused the Modi Government of failing to fulfil commitments made to the people of Andhra Pradesh when Telangana was carved out of it. She was participating in a debate on Andhra Pradesh (Re-Organisation Bill). Intervening after Sonia’s speech, Parliamentary Affairs Minister shot back that the problems on the division of Andhra Pradesh was the legacy of 10 years of UPA rule and rejected her accusations.
In her speech, Sonia wondered why the sense of urgency was not being shown by the Government in fulfilling key commitments made to the people of Andhra Pradesh “who have been waiting patiently for over nine months” and feel they have been “taken for granted”. She said the UPA Government’s commitment to grant special status after the division was also not met by the NDA Government.
“But it is disappointing to find that the Government has not shown any interest in fulfilling these commitments. This is even more perplexing given that the BJP and the TDP are in coalition at the Centre and the State,” the Congress chief said. She said she has written twice in this regard to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was present in the House.
After Sonia spoke, Naidu intervened in the debate saying he agrees with Sonia about problems being faced by people of AP. “But the Government has inherited the situation and is trying to address the concerns...People talk of nine months, nine weeks...You took nine-and-a-half years to bring the Bill and we took nine months. It is less time as compared...”
Naidu’s remarks had Congress members on their feet and there was a verbal spat between the BJP and the Congress benches. In an apparent dig at UPA, Naidu said the original AP Reorganisation Act had some mistakes which forced the Government to bring the amendment bill. He said some “extra intelligent” people had “miscalculated” the number of Andhra Pradesh legislative Council members to 50 which actually should have been 58 and the amendment Bill seeks to achieve this objective.
After the division, AP was left with 175 members in the Assembly and 50 in the State legislative council. Since one- third of 175 was 58, it was decided to increase the strength of the State’s Upper House. When Sonia asked whether BJP opposed special status, Naidu said, “It is not that, madam.” He said the UPA had promised but failed to bring an ordinance on Polavaram project. “But in its first cabinet meeting, our government cleared that ordinance,” he said.