The growing tension over Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh is reaching new heights with politicians at logger heads with each other. With TDP pulling out of the NDA, the parliament too is witnessing the heat with both the ruling TDP and Opposition parties trying to move a no confidence motion against the BJP led NDA government.
Amidst all the chaos, TDP senior leader and MLC, Rajendra Prasad recently came down heavily on Telugu actors who hail from Andhra region accusing them of not participating in Special Category Status movement. Addressing the media he said "During the Jallikattu agitation, Tamil actors and celebrities participated and led the movement. What happened to the Telugu actors? What disease they have got?"
The senior leader didn’t stop here, but went on to add to threaten the industry.
"Are you scared to talk about the State? Are you scared that the Telangana government will kick you out of Hyderabad for speaking out? If you people refuse to stand up for your State, the 5 crore strong people of Andhra Pradesh will boycott you."
In a scathing reply to the politician, renowned actor and director Posani Murali Krishna gave it back to TDP leader in a stormy attack.
Speaking to a Telugu News Channel, Posani said "Yes we are monks (sanyasis) and fools (daddamas). We are not protesting as we were scared but why did the TDP government beat up and arrest the braves who demanded Special CategoryStatus?."
The actor was referring to the arrests of CPI and CPM members which happened several times in the last four years for demanding a Special Category Status.
Explaining the stance of the Telugu actors, Posani said "The Chief Minister has been demanding the SCS for the last 15 years and everybody thought it was good. However, for the past four years he has been fickle minded about the Special Category Status, changing his mind multiple times. Infact, he even asked protestors to stop doing drama over the SCS and sided with the Centre stating that they are giving us (AP) everything. Then, we (Telugu actors) thought that was true and kept mum.”
Now that the CM has started agitating for SCS again saying what he said earlier is not true, Posani added.
“We will join the protest if we please and not join if we don’t want to,” he said
Suggesting a solution to get the SCS for Andhra Pradesh, Posani stated that the ruling party, including CM Naidu, go on an indefinite hunger strike for public interest.
Posani has been vocal about the ruling TDP government’s failures earlier too. Prior to this, he alleged irregularities by the government in announcing the Nandi Awards to Telugu actors and accused the jury for having caste based bias