HYDERABAD: Union minister G. Kishan Reddy said the involvement by some political parties played a role in the violence that engulfed the Secunderabad railway station on Friday. He indicated that the Telangana state government had failed to protect the railway station and properties, saying that maintenance of law and order was a state responsibility.
He castigated unnamed Telangana ministers for “adding fuel to fire” saying, “responsible ministers who took an oath to protect the government and its properties were taking to Twitter and instigating violence.” Kishan Reddy was addressing a hurriedly arranged press conference in New Delhi after meeting Union home minister Amit Shah. Kishan Reddy represents the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency where the railway station is located.
“We believe that there is political instigation in the Secunderabad incident. Yesterday, there was a protest by the Congress in Hyderabad. That party announced in advance that they would hold a protest against the Enforcement Directorate and the Agnipath scheme. Fires were set off near the Raj Bhavan and protesters reached the Raj Bhavan gates. Despite advance knowledge, the state police did nothing to prevent this,” he said.
Kishan Reddy also said it was not just the Congress that was involved in Thursday’s violence near Raj Bhavan. “The Majlis (AIMIM) party was also involved. We are observing what is happening and know who was there,” he said.
Answering a question on whether he had agreed with the contention of some TRS leaders that unemployment was a reason for the incidents on Friday, Kishan Reddy said it was not a creation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi but a legacy issue that built up over the years. Taking aim at Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, Kishan Reddy said, “Why is Secunderabad burning? Is his government not responsible? Chandrashekar Rao was in the government both at the Centre and in the state in the past. What has he done to address this issue?”
Kishan Reddy said the repeated arrests of BJP leaders while at home, or on their way to meet students as was the case of the party-state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar who was arrested on the way to Basara on Friday, and the fact that the Congress leaders and workers were allowed to nearly gatecrash the Raj Bhavan, are clear indication of how the TRS government was using politics for its ends. The reasons for such discrimination, in allowing the Congress and others to break the law, and prevent the BJP from even holding a simple protest, must be found, he said.
The violence in Secunderabad was planned in advance, and the plans were made on social media platforms, he said, adding law and order was the responsibility of the state government and for hours on Friday when the railway station was under attack, the state police remained silent spectators. “Despite knowledge of what was happening, the police did not reach the station in time. People have to understand what kind of conspiracy is behind such events,” he said.
Irrespective of where such violence occurs, it is the state government’s responsibility to maintain law and order, whether in Bihar, or in Telangana, or in any other state, he said. It is up to the Telangana government to investigate and find out who was responsible for the violence at the Secunderabad railway station, Kishan Reddy said.
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