Union Minister for Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu was thoroughly exposed on Wednesday for his double standards on granting special category status to Andhra Pradesh.
Reacting to a private member bill moved by Congress MP K V P Ramachandra Rao in Rajya Sabha, Venkaiah tried to cover up the inefficiency of the NDA government, by stating that the issue of special status to AP was not part of the AP Reorganisation Bill.
“It was only an assurance by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Rajya Sabha. The blame should go to the Congress party for not making the special status issue part of the AP Reorganisation Bill. We are not at fault. We are sincerely trying to implement whatever is there in the Act,” he said.
What Venkaiah tried to conceal is that the issue of special category status to AP had come up for discussion on the last day of the Parliament when the Rajya Sabha took up the Reorganisation Bill for voting.
It was Venkaiah who forced Manmohan Singh to make a statement on the issue to do justice to AP post-bifurcation. He had, in fact, demanded special status for a period of 10 years. He did not explain why the BJP had supported the Bill without the clause for special category.
Venkaiah also forgot the fact that the BJP had mentioned the special status issue in its poll manifesto and he and present Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured the same when they addressed public meetings in AP during elections.
What happened to all these assurances, Mr Venkaiah?