File Photo: President Pranab Mukherjee
Playing peace maker, President Pranab Mukherjee has asked the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to live in peace, saying one can choose friends, not neighbours. Both states have been at loggerheads with each other over several issues.
He also quoted one of Jesus Christ's Ten Commandments, "love your neighbour", to drive home the need for both states to live together in peace and harmony.
President Mukherjee said, "Our neighbours are going to stay where they are. We may like it, we may not like it. But it is for us to decide, whether we should live with our neighbours in peace, harmony or in perpetual tension. Choice is ours."
Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu's Telegu Desam Party (TDP) and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) are locked in a bitter battle in the cash-for-votes scandal. Both sides have accused each other of trying to buy support during the elections to the legislative council of Telangana last month.
At a public function in Hyderabad, the President observed that good neighbourly relations are the only way forward.
President Mukherjee said, "Only I would like to suggest that we shall have to learn one lesson in our domestic relations and also in our international relations that we can choose our friend. But we cannot choose our neighbours."
Noting that the Hyderabad region has made rapid progress in areas like Information Technology that is benefitting the entire country, he said it is important that both states lived in harmony and contributed to nation's progress.
"Therefore, my appeal to all concerned would be, now it is the reality, Telangana has come to being. Telangana, Andhra and all other bordering states, work in close harmony," said the President.
The President is in Hyderabad for a customary southern sojourn.