Tirupati: Telugu film star and Jana Sena Party founder Pawan Kalyan on Saturday warned the Narendra Modi government not to test the “patience and tolerance” of people of Andhra Pradesh further and demanded that the promised special category state status be granted forthwith. “We are tired and vexed. Please don’t test our patience and cause intolerance. Special status is our right and it has to be granted at any cost,” Kalyan asserted and vowed to fight for it till the end.
He accused the Centre of “diverting” the special status issue in the name of cow protection. “You are thinking about cow protection. I have 15 cows (in my backyard). By taking up cow protection, you are only diverting other important issues,” Kalyan said.
“Hum ladenge. Jeete tak ladenge. (We will fight till we win)”, the actor said in an emotion-filled tone at his first public meeting after a gap of over two years. He attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union ministers Arun Jaitley and M Venkaiah Naidu for allegedly seeking to “betray” the people of Seemandhra on one pretext or the other and denying special status to the state.-PTI