Vandalism in Telangana very unfortunate: Yechury

The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Friday described as "very unfortunate" the vandalism during the 'million march' to Hyderabad called by Telangana supporters.

The protesters went on a rampage yesterday vandalizing the statues of 14 eminent Telugu personalities. Parts of the damaged statues were thrown into the Hussainagar lake in Hyderabad.

"This is very unfortunate that such vandalism occurred. These statues are part of the combined Telangana and Andhra culture, and also part of the vishala Andhra movement which include all Telegu speaking people," CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury told mediapersons in New Delhi.

On Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's statement on the controversial appointment of P J Thomas as central vigilance commissioner, Yechury said, "PM made the statement in the Rajya Sabha saying that since the Kerala government made Thomas as chief aecretary, so he presumed that vigilance clearance was there."

Disagreeing with the statement, he said, "That time we had protested and walked out of the House," and added, "Subsequently facts have now come out. The Kerala government has stated that in early part of 2008, it wrote to the Department of Personnel and Training saying that they are not willing to consider the deputation of Thomas to the central government because of the pending vigilance case.

"So it is absolutely incorrect to say that Kerala government has not informed the Centre about the case."

Yechury also wondered how the government's own intelligence apparatus had no information on this. "The DopT does not know about the background of its own officers. If that is so then it is a very sorry state of affairs."