Telangana Rashtra Samithi working president and state IT minister K T Rama Rao on Friday defended his statement supporting the strike of the workers of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, which the Centre was planning to privatise.
“When the BJP government at the Centre is trying to sell off Visakhapatnam Steel Plant like scrap, they (BJP) leaders are not opening their mouths. But when I question the same, they are asking what way I am concerned with Andhra Pradesh,” he said at a meeting in Hyderabad.
KTR wondered whether Andhra Pradesh was not part of India and whether he had no right to question injustice to the people of a part of the country.
“Don’t we have a responsibility towards this country? We are first Indians and then Telanganites,” he said.
The TRS working president alleged that the Centre was indiscriminately privatising everything.
“It has thrown 80,000 employees of BSNL on roads. Today, the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant is being privatised. Tomorrow, it might be the turn of Singareni Collieries and BHEL. If we can’t speak out in support of steel plant, who will support us when Singareni and BHEL are privatised?” he asked.
KTR said Telangana cannot keep quiet if people of AP are in trouble. And when Telangana faces problems in future, Andhra people would also come to our rescue.
“We have to cooperate with each other mutually,” he asserted.
