Satyam: Andhra CM hits back at Naidu

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy on Tuesday hit back at Telugu Desam Party leader Chandrababu Naidu on the Satyam Computer Services scam and said the latter's family members, promoters of Heritage Foods, too would meet the same fate as Ramalinga Raju over the alleged fraud in the company.

"There is no difference between the financial scandal in Satyam Computer Services and Heritage Foods. Your family holds 33 per cent stake in Heritage and will land exactly where Ramalinga Raju has now landed (in jail)," Reddy said, replying to a lengthy debate on the Satyam saga in the assembly.

"Had he been alive, (Joseph) Goebbels (the propaganda minister of Adolf Hitler) would have felt ashamed looking at you," an irate chief minister told Naidu, also the leader of Opposition.

The House witnessed noisy scenes and constant exchange of words between the ruling Congress and the TDP members through the 90-minute reply by the chief minister.

At one stage, legislative affairs minister K Rosaiah rose to move a motion seeking suspension of TDP members from the House for storming the Speaker's podium but the protesters quietly went back to their seats to avoid punishment.

Reddy squarely blamed Naidu, a former CM, for the Satyam scandal and the dubious rise of Raju, who is in jail after he confessed that he cooked the city-based IT firm's books to the tune of over Rs 7,800 crore (Rs 78 billion).