Categorise SCs before dividing AP: MRPS chief

HYDERABAD: Bringing in a new dimension to Telangana issue, Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti (MRPS) chief Manda Krishna Madiga on Wednesday attributed a motive behind the demand that deputy chief minister Damodar Rajanarasimha, a madiga, should resign. He also saw a malefic intention in the demand that all dalit people’s representatives in Telangana region should resign.Manda Krishna Madiga’s perception of the dalit dimension of the movement has added a new perspective to the issue at a time when the Telangana movement has reached its zenith with over 100 MLAs resigning from the Assembly. It also opened a window to how dalits, particularly madigas, felt about the leadership of the movement and how they suspect it would ditch them when Telangana state is carved out. Interestingly, Krishna Madiga’s contention that Telangana dalits need not resign would help the Congress in getting a breather from the suffocation it is suffering with MPs, MLAs and MLCs from the region resigning.Addressing a news conference here here, he said that the UPA should first address the issue of classification of the SCs before the Telangana issue is settled because it was the only way to help the madigas assert themselves. It would help in preventing doras to subjugate the dalits in independent Telangana. He said that nobody believes the doras’ promise that a dalit would be made the chief minister of independent Telangana state.He said that the Telangana movement, in its present composition, is more for the dominance of the area by doras (upper caste velamas) rather than emancipation of the dalits.Krishna Madiga said the demand for Rajanarsimha’s resignation was in violation of the gentlemen’s agreement. The gentlemen’s agreement had laid down that a leader from Telangana region should be made the deputy chief minister. But the Telangana protagonists who always harp on violation of the gentlemen’s agreement were now demanding that it be violated which, he said, was borne out of jealousy that a madiga was made the deputy chief minister.Krishna Madiga recalled Telangana movement leaders had described the appointment of Sudarshan Reddy as advocate general as victory of the people but the same party was now demanding Rajanarasimha’s resignation. “This proves that in Telangana movement too, doras want an upper hand over dalits,” he said.