Exclusive: At first meeting of JFFC, members vow to fight injustice to AP by Centre

Keeping aside their ideological and political differences, leaders, former bureaucrats and social activists gathered on Friday at Hotel Daspalla in Hyderabad under the banner of Joint Fact Finding Committee (JFFC), to chalk out plans to fight the Centre.

The 20-member committee formed following a call given by Jana Sena chief and actor Pawan Kalyan said they aimed to fight against the injustice meted out to both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, post bifurcation.

The first ever meeting of the JFFC lasted for more than four hours.

In the meeting former Congress MP Undavalli Arun Kumar opined that MPs belonging to various parties should not resign but continue their protests in Parliament and exert pressure on the Centre. Echoing the same, Lok Sabha MP Konathala Ramakrishna said that the MPs should not resign.

“The government should move a no-confidence motion in the coming Parliament session,” he said.

“Our move should be 'do or die' and 'now or never'. People are really agitated in the state,” Ramakrishna said.

He alleged that the Centre has been abusing the government machinery by conducting ED raids against those critical of the ruling dispensation. “It has become like an undeclared emergency," he said.

He also pointed out that the Andhra government committed a grave mistake by accepting the special package against the special status accorded to it.  He further emphasised that since north Andhra regions and Rayalaseema were extremely backward, there is a dire need to fight for them. 

“Within a 40 kilometers radius of Amaravati, 20 medical colleges including the AIIMS is being proposed by the Chief Minister. What about the other regions? There should be decentralization.”

Prof K Nageshwar, who joined the Committee to represent Telangana said, “Everyone in Andhra is angry. But they don’t know what are they angry about. I don’t understand why there was a discussion when all the facts are available in public domain. The struggle shouldn’t just be academic but political too. Study and struggle should go together simultaneously.”

Expressing the need to educate the masses about the injustice done to the state, he said, “The idea should grip the masses.”

JSP chief Pawan Kalyan who addressed the meeting said that a scary situation was prevailing in the state. “Young people want to take the path of extremism. The clear bias and the north and south India divide is evident. People of Andhra feel like secondary citizens in the country.”

JFFC comprises 11 committee members, three advisors and six invitees. The committee members include Lok Satta Party chief Jayaprakash Narayan, former Undavalli Arun Kumar, Prof K Nageshwar, activist Krishnaswamy and others.  The advisors are Justice Gopal Gowda, Dr IYR Krishna Rao and Dr Padmanabhayya. The invitees include Konathala Ramakrishna (YSR Congress Party), K Ramakrishna (CPI), P Madhu (CPM), Janga Gowtham (Congress), Gidugu Rudraraju (Congress) and Chalasani Srinivas.

The JFFC was formed following a call given by Jana Sena chief actor Pawan Kalyan.

Saturday would be the second day meeting, dubbed ‘technical meeting’ where academicians, activists and politicians would bring the figures of the grants given by the Centre so far and other statistics.

Addressing the media, later in the evening, Jayaprakash Narayan said that they are not going to struggle for the state in a democratic way. “It is going to be a thankless task.”

Meanwhile, in another development, the JFFC filed an RTI application demanding to know the progress of implementation of promises made by the Centre in Parliament during bifurcation.